mau from nowhere & hihi – Pressure (2025)
Pressure, by mau from nowhere and hihi like a breath of chaotic, necessary air. The collaborative debut from these two experimental forces, mau, the Nairobi-raised, UK-based sonic shapeshifter, and hihi, an ever-elusive architect of sonic maximalism, pushes against genre boundaries with a fierce sense of intention. It’s an 11-track odyssey that doesn’t just defy categorisation; it actively resists it.
Conceived in the strange limbo of London’s overstimulating sprawl, Pressure is as much a reaction to displacement as it is a document of emotional archaeology. “A huge part of this project was playing telephone with a lot of the rap music we grew up on”, the duo explains. That game of telephone becomes a guiding metaphor throughout the album; fragments of Memphis rap, British grime, alt-R&B, and abstract noise filter through warped production and raw lyricism to create something completely original. The result is an album that feels sculpted from tension: between continents, aesthetics, identities, and inner selves.
Opener ‘here we are again’ kicks the door down with an off-kilter, Madlib-style beat that lurches and stutters beneath mau’s fluid, nearly whispered bars. It’s a statement of intent, one that feels purposefully disoriented as if you’ve been dropped into a moving vehicle already speeding through a dream. This sense of momentum and friction continues into
‘peace:war’ slows the pace into syrupy, almost Dilla-like territory, where distorted harmonies collide with sub-bass squelches and fractured percussion. Here, the emotional weight begins to settle. mau and hihi aren’t just experimenting for experimentation’s sake; they’re building emotional scaffolding from splintered sounds.
‘what’s all this then’, a track that pairs breakbeats and deconstructed guitar riffs with a kind of melancholic absurdity. It’s chaotic but not incoherent, teetering between vulnerability and irony like a late-night voicemail never meant to be sent. ‘let it pass’ continues that emotional excavation, inviting listeners to sit in discomfort with quiet grace and lush, pillowy production that recalls early Sampha or serpentwithfeet. ‘portals’ emerges as a standout cut, floating on dreamy synths and tender vocal layers. It’s a rare flash of escapist optimism in an album otherwise preoccupied with psychological murk.
There are moments of levity, too, especially with ’E6’ slides into a smooth, romantic groove that feels like a half-remembered summer. While ‘a_m_h’, on the other hand, bursts with collective energy, a thrilling posse cut featuring Nairobi-based collaborators who match the duo’s intensity bar for bar. It’s both an homage and an evolution, paying tribute to the global hip-hop community from which mau and hihi emerged while asserting a fiercely new direction.
‘Green Hill Zone’ is perhaps the most emotionally arresting moment on the record. Over minimal production that leaves room for breath and ache, mau explores themes of mortality, memory, and fractured intimacy. The song’s rawness is unfiltered, its impact quietly seismic. While the closing duo of ‘miss you’ and ‘silly’ brings the album to a surprising and satisfying conclusion, soft, reflective, and almost playful. It’s a gentle reminder that amidst the chaos, joy still flickers through the cracks.
Where Pressure truly excels is in its sense of conversation, not only between mau and hihi, but between past and present, grief and growth, tradition and invention. mau brings his signature introspective lyricism and soul-searching delivery, grounded in a global awareness of culture and community. Hihi, on the other hand, thrives in contradiction, leaning into maximalist production choices that twist familiar genres into jagged, gleaming new shapes. Together, they form an unlikely yet electrifying creative match.
Pressure offers no clean resolutions, no easy hooks or genre allegiance. Instead, it gives us something far more rare in contemporary music: an invitation to sit with discomfort, to ride the waves of disorientation, and to emerge on the other side changed. It’s an album that rewards repeat listens, not because it’s hard to understand, but because it keeps unfolding new meanings with every spin.
Find out more about mau from nowhere on his Facebook, Instagram and Spotify.
