Single Review: Georgia Ruyi — Hypnosis

Photo by Beccy Young

Hypnosis is Georgia Ruyi‘s second single and brings with it raw guitar, sensationally clean production, and vocals that are butter smooth and clear in a way that feels almost effortless. But what appears to be a stripped-back folk song on the surface in fact holds a melody underneath that is anything but simple; a harmonic and rhythmic complexity that only reveals itself once you’ve stopped being distracted by how lovely it all sounds.

The subject matter is one that is current societal currency; being present but completely and utterly elsewhere. The watchful gaze of a world full of people who are physically in the room but mentally a thousand miles from it. “The sky is falling down again”, the masks, the uncertainty, the sleepwalking through daily life, and then a central line, delivered with such quiet precision, “you couldn’t have known it, you were under hypnosis.” It’s not accusatory, it’s almost compassionate, which is what makes it resonate so well.

There are soft echoes of Adrianne Lenker in here, that same intimacy, sense of a thought being worked out in real time through the guitar strings, but Georgia Ruyi has her own thing going on, and what’s particularly remarkable is how much space and depth she wrings out of a solo acoustic setup. It genuinely sounds like more than one instrument at times. Exactly how she does it is the kind of question that can only be answered by seeing her play live, and on the basis of needing to discover this evidence, that will be going to the top of my list.

Only two singles in, to date, and already an independent artist to watch very closely.

‘Hypnosis’ by Georgia Ruyi is out now on YMP Records and all streaming platforms.