Glints’ lockdown mixtape

After releasing his debut album ‘Choirboy’ and a massive sold-out AB show in Brussels early March, Covid-19 stopped Belgian MC Glints’ campaign in its tracks. The show-circuit came to a halt and a summer full of gigs all over Belgium and France vanished. An all too recognizable story for anyone in the music industry today.

With no shows to play and not being able to leave the house, Glints decided to do what he does best: make music. Confined at home with his Antwerp-based collective ‘Abattoir Anvers’ he set to work. The result: ‘28 Days’.

On this raw mixtape, Glints presents a cinematic work that captures the angst and zeitgeist of the last couple of months. Tracks handle topics like horror movie binge-watching, hypochondriacs, toilet paper hoarders, and the scarily accurate predictions made by The Simpsons. The tape is, in fact, one long track, stuffed to the brim with film quotes and samples.

The project is accompanied by a video, in which eerie cartoons get distorted and warped. Together with an ominously glitching moustached smiley, these visuals visualize Glints’ recurring fever dreams and disturbed state of mind in times of Corona. The video was created by Glints and his usual collaborators Glen Schrijvers and Iljen Put.

Sound-wise, the mixtape differs from the album. It is heavily rap focused and incorporates hard-hitting beats by several producers. The result is a trippy audiobook, in which Glints manages to put the past few months into words, accompanied by a feverish animation video. This is the second Glints project in just a few months, and it doesn’t look like he’ll stop soon, as he eerily raps on ‘Fever Dream’: ‘at home with instrumentals, I’m only giving you throwaways’.