Album Review: Kill The Sound

Killian Ordono has built his name from the ground up. The Auckland artist, still at school and doing the whole thing himself, first cut through when his tracks started spreading between schools across Aotearoa through Snapchat stories and word of mouth. Kill The Sound! is his first dedicated rap album since New Era back in 2024, and before you even press play the headline is that he wrote, recorded, produced, mixed and mastered all eleven tracks himself in roughly a month.

You know exactly what you are in for from the opening track. Sound sets up the whole record: bass-heavy, powerful hip hop beats with a huge presence of auto-tuned vocals that sit right inside the trap and eastern flavoured corner of the genre. Think Atlanta. The lead lines do most of the melodic lifting while the vocals sit back in the mix, and the mix itself feels purposely distorted a lot of the time. This is music you can imagine gaming to, and the animated album visuals on Spotify lean all the way into that.

The tracks are short. Most sit under two minutes, each one landing like a single idea rather than a fully built out song, and that keeps the whole thing moving. Sound rolls straight into Triple T on a very similar bass progression before H2K steps things in a different direction, with Killian taking on a different accent and pushing higher into his range to carry the lyrics. There is a lot going on in the vocal production here, and that same style flows through Ruin Da Party before Swag drops into a slower tempo. Swag is also the longest track on the record, which quietly makes it the centrepiece.

Across the album the melodies and vocal lines do not always line up neatly, and it feels deliberate, leaning into the grimy, dissonant edge of independent rap and hip hop. The bass really drives it home more often than not. If there is a criticism to make, it is that the effects piled onto the vocals can tip into being a bit much at times, and there are moments where a cleaner take might have hit harder.

The back half opens things up. Luv Letter, the album’s only guest feature and a link up with Xevain, is the softer and more vulnerable moment, sitting with the question of whether someone’s feelings are real while trying not to fall too fast. It is a good contrast to the harder material around it. From there Press Start and Kill Season push the energy back up before Sky closes the record on a more uplifting, atmospheric note.

And really, Press Start is the track that sums the whole thing up. If the goal is a short, punchy soundtrack for gaming that fits the aesthetic Killian is chasing, then this is exactly it. Kill The Sound! is not trying to be a polished, radio ready record, and that is the point.

This is not an album that is going to land for everyone, and that is completely fine. The heavy auto tune, the deliberately blown out mix and the sub-two minute ideas are not built for broad approval, and they are not trying to be. That is the whole appeal. Come to it knowing who Killian is, a young, independent artist moving fast and carving out his own corner of the underground on his own terms, and it all clicks into place. Judge it by his vision rather than against the mainstream and there is a good chance you walk away with something. There is real promise in these production ideas, and it will be worth watching where he takes them next.