Jarrod Milton sets his own bar at a new high with ‘Blue’. Sounding like an overwhelming esoteric mix of Sampha and Douglas Dare, Milton approaches the brink between reality and fiction in his latest release. It’s a border world brought forth through Milton’s light, soulful and spine-tingling voice which is backed by a cross-stitch of eerie electronics. The visuals (directed by Ben Elias in Paris) also serve to intensify this strange atmosphere. In an attempt to interpret the video, this narrative focussed on one tormented individual seems to suggest that it isn’t outside forces, such as nature represented by the forest or domestication as represented by the house, which cause us the most harm, but our own haunting thoughts, memories and past relations. The combination of audio and visual here is bewitching and serves to fill a gap in the Atlanta music scene that Milton calls home. A sudden appearance of goosebumps from listening to ‘Blue’ signals that Jarrod Milton is here to stay. - HT