While most crushes make your heart race, Brooklyn R&B/indie pop group Wet will force you to slow it down. Your breathing will become deeper, your limbs will hang heavier, your eyelids will sync with the perfectly dropped, dark electronic beats. Sexy and strong, Wet is the Bushwick Music Crush that will have you listening in sultry, slow motion. We caught Wet’s final New York area performance at Mercury Lounge before their upcoming tour accompanying CHVRCHES.
The trio (Kelly Zutrau, Martin Sulkow and Joe Valle) met as students in New York back in 2006. They dispersed amongst Providence, New York and Los Angeles soon after, but continued to collaborate, performing shows and self-releasing work in the summer of 2012. Their influences range from Solange to The XX, and the minimalistic marriage between the two very different genres is what makes Wet such a novelty. Los Angeles brother duo Inc. has a similar knack for combining R. Kelly smoothness with modern indie pop beats, but Wet takes the mix and strips it down to an even simpler, polished sound. Kelly Zutrau’s sweet vocals echo and bleed into drumbeats – keyboard and electronic claps slammed by bandmate Joe Valle. Though New York audiences can be notoriously talkative during performances, the fans at Mercury Lounge hung on every weighted word and chant, only interrupting with appreciative whispers.
In crowd favorite “U Da Best,” Zutrau opens with, ” All I know is when you hold me, I still feel lonely.” Her voice starts off swathed in synth, inaccurately conjuring an association to the likes of Imogen Heap. This vanishes forty-three seconds into the track, when her raw vocals swim to the surface. Guitarist Martin Sulkow artfully strums chords that range from hopeful and upbeat, to slow and painful. The song was our anthem of Fall and we even featured in on our Fall Playlist.
In a new song, “No Lie,” the group manages to make the remainders of a failing love into great melody. Lyrics like “my baby said he loves me, a thousand times, they’re all lies” start the track off somberly, until the empowering chorus and finger snaps have you rooting for the love-scorned songstress. Their music tactfully walks a tightrope between hushed and danceable.
Wet’s latest self-titled EP (and first) was released October 15th on Neon Gold. Short and sweet, just like their eight song set, it’s barely enough to keep us satiated. Falling out of love never felt so hot, sweltry and wet. Makes us pity the fool who got dumped…