Vegyn

Joe Thornalley produces under the name Vegyn, crafting beats from a base in London that draw notice from both dancefloors and MCs. His work balances restraint with fine-grained detail, coming across as simultaneously playful and enigmatic while steering clear of standard dance tropes and sidestepping prevailing hip-hop conventions. Since 2014 he has put out solo releases on his own PLZ Make It Ruins imprint, gaining wider notice for his contributions to Frank Ocean’s Blond and Endless in 2016. Only Diamonds Cut Diamonds arrived as his first proper album in 2019, followed two years later by the house-leaning EP Like a Good Old Friend. He further showcased his breadth across a pair of extended mixtapes, the 2019 release Text While Driving If You Want to Meet God! and the 2022 set Don't Follow Me Because I'm Lost Too!!

Thornalley first began composing tracks in 2013 during his studies at the London College of Communication. Regular visits to the U.K. bass venue Plastic People led him to hand a USB of his productions to James Blake, several of which later aired on BBC Radio 1. Early 2014 saw the launch of PLZ Make It Ruins via the mini-album All Bad Things Have Ended - Your Lunch Included. He also started the London club night GÆZ and became a regular at Tropical Waste, where he shared bills with Airhead, M.E.S.H., and EndgamE. The 12" EP Janhui appeared in 2015, and after an encounter with the R&B artist at Plastic People he supplied several tracks to Blond and Endless the following year. Phone Phoneys surfaced as a standalone single in 2017, and he added production to Travis Scott’s Astroworld in 2018.

A nearly 90-minute collection of short loops and sketches titled Text While Driving If You Want to Meet God! came out in 2019 ahead of Only Diamonds Cut Diamonds, which included appearances from JPEGMAFIA, Retro X, and Freddie Gibbs. Like a Good Old Friend, an abstract house EP, followed in 2021. Don't Follow Me Because I'm Lost Too!!, a 75-track mixtape, was issued in 2022.