R. Missing is a New York artist who has been working since 2017, and "Like the Sound of Injured Love" is a record that wants to be both cold and warm at the same time. The title track opens with a drum machine pattern that could be from a mid-80s 12 inch, then a bassline that moves fast but never hurries. Vocals sit low in the mix, buried under layers of synth pad and reverb. "Telepolartears" pushes the tempo up into something closer to italo disco territory, while "Dreamletting" drops back into a slow, pulsing thing that could almost be a Cocteau Twins B-side if the guitars were louder.
The voice is always there, quiet and steady. It does not break into drama. The production throughout is clean but not sterile, that late night digital gloss that still feels human. "Let in the Night Outside" has a bassline that walks a straight line for four minutes while the synths wobble around it in circles. "Supermuted" does exactly what its title suggests, everything reduced to a bass throb and a voice that barely rises above a whisper.
This is for people who like their dance music melancholic and their sad music danceable. Fans of Cold Cave or Linea Aspera or the more melodic end of the drab Majesty spectrum will find things here. It is an acquired taste because the voice never commits to being a lead instrument, it is always one more texture in the arrangement. The vinyl exists if you want it.
