quickly, quickly

Making music under the name Quickly, Quickly, Graham Jonson concocts a hypnotic blend of maxed-out production, jazz-inflected instrumentals, and stacked rhythms. After exploring lo-fi hip-hop beat-making, sampling, and laid-back instrumental material on earlier albums, Jonson began making tracks where he sang and played all the instruments, transitioning from electronic producer to more of a songwriter role for his 2021 release, The Long and Short of It. On his 2023 EP, Easy Listening, he re-crafted breezy ’60s soul as psychedelic- and synthesizer-heavy electronic pop.
Jonson began making music at a young age and was already releasing tracks publicly by the time he was 16. In 2017, he began using the Quickly, Quickly moniker for his atmospheric hip-hop instrumentals. His production style developed over the course of several releases, moving from the relaxed beats of the self-released 2017 collection Quickly, Quickly Vol. 1 to more-nuanced electronic production on 2018 projects Paths and Over Skies. Jonson refined his style much further after signing with Ghostly International for the release of his 2021 album, The Long and Short of It. The new material included more-traditional song structures, live instrumentation, and vocals sung by Jonson. Preceded by notable single “Feel,” The Long and Short of It was released in August of 2021. For his next outing, 2023 EP Easy Listening, Jonson looked to carefree and positive ’60s soul as the project’s primary inspiration. The six-song EP was still rich with Quickly, Quickly’s rhythmic psychedelia, combining live instrumentation, chopped samples, and buzzy synthesizers on each of its sunny and time-bending tracks. ~ Fred Thomas