Music Review: "Vanisher, Horizon Scraper" by Quadeca
I wanted to start off a new "music review" series for my blog, so I asked my friend lafl!!!¢he! for an album to review. They told me to review Quadeca's fourth studio album, Vanisher, Horizon Scraper, released on July 25, 2025. I have not listened to Quadeca before this, so my review will be unbiased.
Cover Art
The cover for this album is fairly simple. I do not think the cover is very noteworthy, although I do like the drawing techniques used for it.
Overall Rating: 7/10
Track Listing
NO QUESTIONS ASKED
The first track on the album, NO QUESTIONS ASKED, has a beat using the acoustic guitar alongside some (layered) vocal sounds. Ambience is not exactly my style, but I will admit, this is above average.
Overall Rating: 6/10
WAGING WAR
WAGING WAR features Olēka. Again, another ambient, mostly instrumental track. I have to say, the instrumental on here was better for me and fit better. The vocals used were interesting, too. This is where I start seeing unique talent in Quadeca that makes me see him more than just a generic ambience artist.
Overall Rating: 7/10
RUIN MY LIFE
Vanisher, Horizon Scraper's third track is interesting. It is much slower and more vocal than the previous two songs. For this reason, I place RUIN MY LIFE higher than the previously reviewed songs. Quadeca can write, but not too deeply or impressively.
Overall Rating: 8/10
GODSTAINED
GODSTAINED continues Quadeca singing over guitar-playing. It is more relaxed than RUIN MY LIFE and provides a chill vibe. The guitar is slow and sweet, and Quadeca's singing is good. I did not see anything unique I enjoyed that was not found in previous songs, though.
Overall Rating: 7/10
AT A TIME LIKE THIS
AT A TIME LIKE THIS begins with an interesting beat alongside cool vocals. One thing I found interesting was the slightly aggressive tone in Quadeca's voice later in the song. After that aggressive part, the switch in attitude also felt nice to hear.
Overall Rating: 8/10
MONDAY
MONDAY features a slow, somewhat sad instrumental which has some audibly great but lyrically unimpressive singing from Quadeca. The repetitiveness prevents me from rating it higher. The instrumental is not really my style and sounds too stereotypically folk to me. Yes, I know the album literally does "folktronica" as a genre, but that does not make it so good to me.
Overall Rating: 6/10
DANCING WITHOUT MOVING
The upgrade in the instrumental and vocals from MONDAY to this song cannot be emphasised enough. Enough said.
Overall Rating: 8/10
THAT'S WHY
The beat choice was questionable, but I loved hearing some actual rapping in this, even if it did not have too much sustenance and did not last for long. The end lowkey sucked.
Overall Rating: 7/10
I DREAM ABOUT SINKING
I did not enjoy this song. It is way too slow and quiet for me. If I wanted that music, I would choose a video game's main menu screen.
Overall Rating: 4/10
NATURAL CAUSES
This song begins with vocals reminding me of a chorus. The song is one of those "ambient beat with as little singing/rapping as possible," which I can tolerate but not enjoy particularly well.
Overall Rating: 6/10
THUNDRR
The pitter-patter in the beat at the beginning and the eventually chaotic sounds following caught me by surprise in a good thing. This with the vocals used made this song very enjoyable for me. I do wish the whole song felt this chaotic, although the rest of the song sounds very enjoyable, too. The rest of the song is an interesting hodgepodge of weird sounds I can describe as "nails on chalkboard sounding cool."
Overall Rating: 8/10
THE GREAT BAKUNAWA (with Danny Brown)
THE GREAT BAKUNAWA (with Danny Brown) features Danny Brown. Although the intro to the track felt weird to me, I did love hearing Danny Brown's voice come on. Danny's flow was amazing and fit very well with the instrumental. The vocals after Danny's part were also neat. Quadeca raps better in this song than in THAT'S WHY. The end of the song also sounded really cool.
Overall Rating: 9/10
FORGONE
This song executes the use of piano sounds really well. I do wish Quadeca's vocals at the beginning complemented this instead of being weird growling sounds. The other vocals had some great moments, like the singing in general. I also enjoyed the change of beat near the end of the song. The lack of lyricism did make the song feel like it dragged on for too long.
Overall Rating: 7/10
CASPER (with Maruja)
CASPER (with Maruja) features rock band Maruja. The mystery of the beat and Harry Wilkinson's vocals (I do not know whether to describe it as singing, rapping, or just talking) work well, particularly after the bridge. Out of all parts of this song, I loved the instrumental bridge the most. Again, it was a bit too long for me.
Overall Rating: 7/10
Overall Thoughts
I would say this is a good introduction to Quadeca. Although I listen to ambience occasionally, I do not typically consider myself a fan of the genre. However, Quadeca has succeeded in making me interested in how he specifically executes it. I did not hate any song aside from I DREAM ABOUT SINKING, and even then, I did not find it horrible. I do wish Quadeca rapped more on this album, or at the very least, could improve his lyricism other than simply repeating a few basic rhymes. This album is described as "folktronica," "art-pop," and "ambience," which I would say represents well. Thank you for reading my first album review, and recommend me more albums to listen to. I would like to rate it higher, but there are not enough highly-rateable tracks to counter the lowly-rateable ones.
Best Track: THE GREAT BAKUNAWA (with Danny Brown)
Worst Track: I DREAM ABOUT SINKING
Best Feature: Danny Brown (on THE GREAT BAKUNAWA (with Danny Brown))
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