Chicago underground artist Saye Lune pushes R&B into strange new corners

Emerging Chicago underground pop artist Saye Lune colors outside the lines but stays on the page. He sometimes makes daring choices—on the October single “Maniac (to You),” he lowers his velvety vocals in the mix until he sounds like he’s fighting through a hedge of synth sounds that recall 1980s DIY new age cassettes and Tangerine Dream’s score to the movie Thief. As out-there as his ideas can get, though, he consistently incorporates them into compact songs that go down smoothly. On last March’s self-released Demotape, Saye Lune uses delicate quiet storm guitar and unwinding percussion loops (“What We Lose”), bleary alt-R&B arrangements propped up only by the breath in his lungs (“Cold Air”), and tightly compressed drums that snap with pent-up aggression (“Daisy Dukes Left in the Dust.mp3”). The tone of his material drifts from romantic longing to existential confusion and back again. In August, Saye Lune uploaded a few extra tracks to YouTube under the rubric Demotape Deluxe, including an early rendition of the November single “Love4U.” The demo (titled “Love 4”) sands off the later version’s polish, slows down its come-hither melody, and stacks various vocal tracks so it sounds like Saye is duetting with a chipmunk. If he keeps swinging for the fences and pushing his aesthetic into new corners, I’ll keep tuning in.

Saye Lune Deryk G headlines; Little Church and Saye Lune open. Sun 2/2, 8 PM, Schubas, 3159 N. Southport, 21+, free