Eighteen minutes and twelve tracks, many of them barely sixty seconds long, duendita built this record alone at first before bringing in collaborators to add harp, live drums, keys and bass. existential thottie sounds deeply personal balancing experimental club music with the most tender, aching R&B you’ll hear this year.

The kick drum on super sad! hits at something close to a footwork tempo, fast and insistent, but the vocal sitting over it is so soft and tender by contrast. This signature move is deployed repeatedly, as beats that are odd and unexpected balance with aching, beautiful vocals on top. The instrumentation is sparse throughout with no risers building tension or extra layers brought in for impact. Everything is kept small and focussed, and when these tracks bang they do so in a strange and distinctive way. The vocal harmonies are the heart of everything, rooted in the tradition of nineties Black R&B quivering with regret, hurt and pain. head 2 toe is less than ninety seconds long and could easily have been expanded into something much grander, but that isn’t duendita’s style. what happened? is an a cappela track that’s stunning in its simplicity, and roasting that ass has angst audible in both the production and the vocal delivery. as i am nearly reaches three minutes with beautiful jazzy drums and sighing vocals, feeling thoughtful and expansive, and also proving that duendita could stretch everything out if she chose to, but is instead choosing focus and restraint. Every track, however brief, is fully realised and there are no half baked ideas. The rich choruses and beautiful melodies arrive and then disappear, and in just eighteen minutes duendita covers more emotional ground than most artists manage in an hour.