Jerskin Fendrix – Jerskin Fendrix Freestyle

Jerskin Fendrix returns with “Jerskin Fendrix Freestyle,” his first new music since 2020’s debut album “Winterreise.” The London-based Shropshire artist has spent the intervening years composing film music for Yorgos Lanthimos, earning an Ivor Novello Award and nominations for BAFTA, Oscar, and Golden Globe for his “Poor Things” score. He also won Film Composer of the Year and Discovery of the Year at the 2024 World Soundtrack Awards.

The track is raw, sly, and predictably unpredictable. The production has a kind of controlled chaos—part art-pop, part something more complex to pin down. It doesn’t sound like a film score, but you can tell it was made by someone who knows how to write one. There’s structure, but it flexes. There’s melody, but it’s always one breath away from disintegrating. Spoken-word vocals tumble between sneering and self-effacing, making it feel more like an off-script monologue than a standard single.

“Jerskin Fendrix Freestyle” tells us that Fendrix doesn’t use genre lanes. He builds weird, brilliant little cul-de-sacs and invites you in if you’re willing to sit in the discomfort. And the chaos. And, probably, the genius.