From the release of Caribbean-inspired 2016 breakout single, Link, K. Forest has been one of R&B’s most experimental, most mysterious, least definable figures. His deliveries range between the hip-hop adjacent, to the reggae-influenced, to the sensually classic. And now, with latest single, After the Heatwave, something else entirely – something completely unexplored before. 

 

The track is an incredibly curated balance between a low-fi chime-snap-&-key beat and a falsetto somehow sustained throughout the track’s duration. Poetic lines about love, lust, and summer nights round out a vivid painting donned bright and explosive by the simplicity of K. Forest’s risk taking. 

 

At a time when his peers are doing everything they can to stand out – intense vocal play reminiscent of R&B’s Golden Era and recruiting electronic stars for composition – K. Forest reinvents the wheel by doing altogether less. 

 

The results, however, are less-than-none and some of the most exciting routes taken that we’ve heard by any established vocalist in a while.