Pyko da Syko - “wither”
Pyko da Syko, from the USA, has just released the slow burning, downtempo track, “wither.”
“wither” is a haunting and memorable song that moves at a serene tempo. It radiates an unflappable cool that sits somewhere between Gorillaz, Moby and the strung out, hasn’t slept in days atmospheric of The Verve’s Nick McCabe.
Floating, drifting, the piano chord hook is simple but it is designed to get embedded in your brain like all good earworms. You are soon casually nodding your head listening to what feels sublimely inevitable. It is held tenderly by the bones of a repeating percussive groove of shakers and drums that help steady the dreamy drift.
The graceful, blooming, spectral guitar work that flickers across this track can only be described as beautiful. Ambiently shimmering with a smeared, washed-out glows it feels vividly Nick McCabe. Imbuing the same stonerish bliss found on “Neon Wilderness” or “Lucky Man.”
Pyko da Syko complements that music with verses that are delivered extremely well. The understated delivery keeps the track bumping along whilst giving a zero-f*cks veneer despite the lyrical meaning. As the chorus breaks, it sounds like a nostalgic sample lifted straight out of Moby’s Play.
On the track Pyko da Syko elaborates: “This song is about someone trapped in a cycle of self-doubt, exhaustion, and unhealthy coping, questioning their own choices while knowing better. It captures the tension between wanting discipline and clarity but feeling mentally hijacked by anxiety, depression, and self-sabotage. It’s an honest reckoning with burnout. Fighting to reclaim sanity and purpose while stuck asking, ‘what the fuck am I doing?’”