FVTV original music feature ·
17Four Lets an Empty Room Speak on WIWTH
Nick Foster's 17Four project pairs an unsettled electronic pulse with Michael Smith's vulnerable vocals, while the single's stark cover hints at what the song cannot hold.
A key on the floor. An unmade bed. A tree visible through a window in a room that otherwise looks empty. The cover of “WIWTH” leaves a lot of space in the frame, and 17Four's single is similarly occupied by what seems to be missing.
17Four is the electronic recording project of California producer Nick Foster. On “WIWTH,” he teams with vocalist Michael Smith for a track that moves between drum-and-bass influences and a vulnerable melodic center. The song's feeling is immediate even before the arrangement has finished revealing itself.
The vocal asks, “I don't know what love is for,” then, toward the end, returns to the smaller plea, “Don't let go.” Neither line explains a complete story. Together, they give the track a clear emotional direction.
A visual that leaves space for the song
Instead of a conventional artist portrait, the official artwork places its title over a worn room. That choice gives “WIWTH” a visual setting: something once occupied, now standing still. It is an interpretation of the artist-supplied cover rather than an account of any event in Foster's or Smith's lives.
The record works in a similar way. The production creates momentum, but the melodic vocal sounds unwilling to move on. The contrast lets the song hold tension without having to explain every feeling.
The producer behind 17Four
Foster, who identifies his roots with Downey and East Los Angeles, built the 17Four name around the pulse of drum and bass. Recent artist coverage traces that connection to his early exposure to Pendulum. His work reaches outside that foundation into other electronic and rock-influenced sounds.
“WIWTH” uses that background more for movement than sheer speed. At approximately 136 BPM in FVTV's original curator listening notes, the track has an insistent rhythm, yet there is room for Smith's voice to stretch across the beat. That space matters more than a crowded drop.
The song is connected to 17Four's October 2026 project, “The Smith Releases,” which he has described through the electronic artists who influenced his production. Here the larger catalog provides context, but the individual track remains about the uneasy relationship between rhythm and loss.
When the voice stays in the distance
FVTV's original Groover review singled out the vocal's emotional weight and the way its last phrases flow into one another. It also raised a technical reservation: the lead voice remains washed back in the mix for much of the track.
That hazy placement contributes to the atmosphere, but greater vocal presence in a few key moments could make the central hook land harder. It is the difference between letting a feeling hang in the air and letting the singer bring it directly into the room.
A small song with a clear feeling
The title does not supply a neat resolution, and neither does the arrangement. The rhythm keeps moving while the vocal circles an experience that resists closure. That unresolved quality is why the track stays with you.
Foster's background in production gives the recording its shape. Smith's performance gives it its center. “WIWTH” makes its strongest impression when those two elements pull in different directions.