Instead of getting into dance music through clubbing, the 19-year-old Malaysian Irish artist Yunè Pinku has said that her origin as a producer came through “just chilling out” and descending through internet wormholes. Her 2022 debut EP, Bluff, made her a rising star among the ethereal-rave set, an effervescent blend of techno and garage that mixes bedroom intimacy with high-tech sonics. For her upcoming EP, Babylon IX, she delves further into the metaverse, culling inspiration from studies of AI sentience and ancient Celtic lore. She describes its latest single “Sports,” as almost an “angry version of Lana Del Rey’s ‘Video Games,’” and on it, she addresses someone glued to the screen. “Hey, what’s up/TV’s boiling over, love,” she sings in a lilting, nursery rhyme tone, at once delicate and dissociated. The track’s cybernated quality is reflected in swelling, space-like synths, which are grounded by a rubbery bassline and bouncy drums. “Sports” is the sound of someone alone in their room, staring into a screen, and careening into another universe.
