Oddly Satisfying: Ky Newman & Atlgrandma

atlgrandma is the artist Liam Hall, a key figure in Los Angeles’s leftfield pop community: pensive, digitally curdled music that blends rock, rap, pop, and dance music in new absurdist ways. As a producer, Hall has helped shape the sounds of fellow artists like Willow, Snow Wife, Dorian Electra, The Hellp, D4ine, Izzy Spears, ericdoa, and Frost Children. Frequent collaborators include pop masterminds Lil Aaron and Y2K. 

Prior to LA, atlgrandma lived in the suburbs of Atlanta, where his family had resettled after being displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Youtube was his playground: He learned to play guitar, produce music, shoot videos and develop basic fine motor skills all at once. Releases like 2019’s "Even If We Don’t Get It Together" and 2022’s "Angelhood" further explored the brain rot of the chronically online, and detailed the dead-end promises of Western culture with a big Cheshire Cat grin. 

“Nightmare Blunt Rotation”, which arrives August 9, is a perfect distillation of atlgrandma’s sincerely demented, dementedly sincere worldview. Recalling Odelay-era Beck, it’s also a masterful piss-take of the kinds of punishers you can and do meet at parties in Los Angeles. “Reaper”, which comes in September, combines the blown-out sound of vintage bloghouse with a surprisingly compassionate encounter with Death himself. 

Earlier this year atlgrandma toured with Dorian Electra and Frost Children, and co-produced their triple-billed rave-up “We Invented Love,” which landed just in time for summer. His newly launched, semi-regular warehouse event series with fellow provocateur Ky Newman falls somewhere between party and performance art, and returns after Labor Day. 

“Nightmare Blunt Rotation” is out August 9 on smartdumb, a new label by producer Nick