by When there’s a win for diversity and inclusion, we all win. And QRTR definitely wins with her sophomore album, infina ad nausea. The producer, née Meagan Rodriguez, is a Latina woman in the LGBTQ+ community and when you listen to this project, you’ll soon find out that her diversified perspective gives her the experience to relate to everyone who gets their ears on this.
The concept of this album feels a little larger than life to me and difficult to describe and that is exactly what I was trying to encompass sonically. I arranged the track order in a way that felt like the act of spiraling internally (mentally and emotionally). It starts off bright and playful and becomes more frenzied until suddenly you’ve reached “the point” – which is ever moving and evolving and thus unreachable.”
QRTR
infina ad nausea investigates different parts of QRTR. It starts with ‘The Outer Edge,’ an otherworldly melodic foreshadowing of what’s to come in the album, that even features her viral producer cat, ambientkitty. Rodriguez then explores her romantic side in the next two songs, ‘With You’ and ‘Want Me 2.’ While the rest of the album is void of too many lyrics, emotion seeps through each track while still managing to stay completely dancefloor-ready.
‘Like That’ is a standout, showing QRTR’s New York City roots in the form of east coast club melodies that blend beautifully with techno rhythms. The album is mostly on the darker side, but it gets a dreamy break in deep house tune, ‘Blame Me.’ The energy picks back up with ‘Ritual’, a dynamic DnB collaboration with another NYC beatsmith, CSLTY, before ending with IDM-influenced ‘Lucid.’
QRTR may be young, but the depth and range she exhibits in infina ad nausea is breathtaking. Not only does the record showcase who she is as a person, but it also shows who she is as a producer, a tastemaker, and a well-rounded artist. With this album, she proves again she’s a force to be reckoned with. Her ability to command a room with her music is inspiring, and I’m so glad she gives more women in music somebody to look up to.
Listen to QRTR’s infina ad nausea below or stream it on your platform of choice here.
