Vietnamese pop music is going through a renaissance. Led by Gen Z artists in both the mainstream and underground, a number of singers over the past couple of years—Wren Evans, Mỹ Anh, NÂN, Vĩ (f.k.a. Aprxel)—have released vital albums that have defined their country’s globalized R&B landscape. The biggest of them all is tlinh, a sort of Vietnamese Ariana Grande whose songs are as seductively intimate as they are silky smooth. Her best songs were produced by the Hanoi-born Phạm Phú Nguyên, or 2pillz, a producer who became known for his role in the reality competition show Rap Việt. His debut studio album, PILLZCASSO, is a breezy and confident collection of dance pop, bringing on numerous Vietnamese artists for an hour’s worth of beach-ready partying, comedowns included. While easygoing and subdued, it’s the most robust statement in V-pop all year.
One noteworthy aspect of PILLZCASSO is that it functions like a DJ set. The official album upload on YouTube is slightly different from what’s on streaming services, and presents 2pillz playing through his songs as a continuous mix (two years ago, he released a similar video called a “mixset”). The imagery is important: He stands alongside a DJ controller and numerous instruments, positioned like Calvin Harris doing Funk Wav Bounces. But PILLZCASSO is more tonally unified than the Scottish producer’s LPs; here, every featured guest is subsumed by soft-hued atmospherics, falling in line with what 2pillz calls “lắk lành,” a catch-all term for his smooth, vitalizing dance music. When he incorporates reggae basslines and skanking guitars on “BƯỚC ĐI/NÁN LẠI?,” it’s Văn Mai Hương’s hushed singing—interspersed with chopped-up vocals in passages of moody house—that ties everything together. Every voice is putty for 2pillz to hold together his shapeshifting productions.
The best tracks on PILLZCASSO thrive on such seamlessness. “KIỀM CHẾ ĐÔI TAY ĐI NÀO” is a seductive 2-step track that tastefully throws in Jersey club kicks for one pre-chorus. Vũ Phụng Tiên flaunts her addictiveness before delivering a taunt: “Wanna think twice?” An EDM riser arrives before landing on a massive drop, and then everything switches back to the skittering garage beat; these agile maneuvers imagine the dizzying, heart-fluttering highs of a crush as stadium-ready scorcher. “NOBODY BUT YOU” follows it and serves, essentially, as wish fulfillment: The titular line swirls around lush instrumentation, occupying a sensual zone indebted to UK bass, future garage, EDM, and vinahouse.
