We’ve followed the development of Spartan Jet-Plex, aka Virginia’s Nancy Kells for the last few years, writing about releases such as Get Some and All the World. There, we praised her shifting and singular sound, describing it as “not so much between genres but rather apart from the discussion entirely, made with the sole aim of communicating ideas or feelings or messages in the most interesting and effective way possible.”
As ever, Kells has been busy. Not content with her work with Grimalkin Records (the queer, trans, nb/gender nonconforming, poc & women focused record label which releases the wonderful Friends For Equality benefit albums), she has also been working on new music, and has a brand new full-length album, titled STFU, due for release on 18th May. Kells says these songs are “mainly about growing older and the current state of our world/country,” and they promise to be every bit as unique and incomparable as previous Spartan Jet-Plex releases.
The album is at least partly inspired by Kells’s relationship with her older brother, with whom she has reconnected and become close, an experience that has shone a light on getting older and the strange ways life often works. “It makes you feel less alone in this world to have someone in it that came from the same place you did and shared many of the same experiences and witnessed many of the same things that you have as a child,” Kells says. “It is difficult in this world to truly know or understand someone no matter how close you are to them, but I feel fortunate, and it is comfort to have a friendship with my brother.”
As an initial taster for the album, Kells has made a video trailer, including a snippet of the title track which features vocals from Berko Lover, aka Baltimore’s Tiaira Harris. The pair are also working on a collaborative album under the moniker Merge, which will be released later this year.
Excitingly, Kells is also putting out a 7″ lathe cut single a week ahead of release. The record presents two of the album’s tracks, and today we have the pleasure of unveiling both. ‘Time’s Up’ is an intense and atmospheric song, layered vocals delivering opaque lyrics about watching time slip by. “Our time has come,” Kells sings, “Our time has gone, there’s nothing left but time.” The B-side ‘40 Something’ is similarly evocative, unfurling snake-like in a gothic haze, gentle guitar acting as an anchor to the soaring atmospherics and ethereal vocals.
[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=3101053123 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small track=1262870304]
[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=3101053123 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small track=3805200286]
If those two songs weren’t enough, here’s one that only appears on the full-length. ‘Alright’ rises from gentle guitar as Kells’s vocals come winding out of the void, the only percussion a series of sharp staccato breaths. The atmosphere is at once melancholy and otherworldly, capturing perfectly a strange dream-like sense of struggle and loss. This sensation thins and disperses, rising to the ceiling like smoke, though never quite dissipating entirely, hanging above the scene, watching.
“The moon glows, the night air
it’s alright, we roam
no-one knows, true love”
[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=3973702496 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small track=1901762347]
The 1989 7” will be released on 11th May, and STFU is out on cassette tape, with artwork from Michael Christy, on 18th May. You can pre-order both now via the Spartan Jet-Plex Bandcamp page (1989 & STFU). There are lots of extras and goodies that come with the physical releases (including zines, stickers and pins), so grab those if you can!
P.S. Nancy is playing a live show TONIGHT in Richmond as part of the improv noise collective Womajich Dialyseiz. Head along if you’re in the area!