A few years back when I was at university, Jon Waltz became an unlikely library companion thanks to his debut ‘Bang (Left My Home)’. He immediately stood out from the dizzying array on self-proclaimed rappers you’ll find online; not only possessing that much desired natural oral rhythm, but he was also a decent songwriter and clearly had an ear for the freshest beats. Three years on and that memorable combination certainly hasn’t waned, in fact Waltz displays a well-crafted sophistication with newest single ‘Riot’. Speaking on the songwriting process Waltz explains that what started out as a song about “affluent minorities conscious about being affluent minorities [..] turned into a song about generational values and internal conflict.” In particular, the singer-rapper draws comparisons between his present self and who he was five years ago. As he picks holes in the pieces of advice passed on by his mother and father and casts off the influence of any past relationship, the revelation that Waltz comes to is that no one has it figured out. The image of a burning gasoline-soaked tyre-stack keeps coming back to the listener, an original metaphor for what it means to find yourself - it’s destructive, it’s beautiful, it’s full of energy and cannot be controlled, but at the same time exists only within that piled-up environment. The essential message, growing up is its own kind of riot. In the press release, Waltz also calls out his “engineer-producer-spirit animal Eric Lynch”, who we hope he has been working alongside for his two-year-in-the-making first album. - HT