Seatkickr is the project of Montreal’s Sofie Milito, who uses her experience as a theatre artist to combine the visual and the sonic, the physical and the ethereal. With two singles previously to their name (both of which are available on Bandcamp), Seatkickr had developed a cathartic garage rock style, from the taut and impassioned ‘Hands’ to the lushly energetic ‘Your Tie’. After putting out those songs, Milito took a year-long break from releasing music to work on a proper debut Seatkickr release. The result is an as yet untitled EP and, if early indications are anything to go by, the record is a something of a stylistic pivot.
The lead single from the EP, ‘Ditch’ is a good example, sacrificing some of the richness of the previous tracks in favour of raw mood. Tip-toeing into existence with a muted, foreboding creep, the song grows gradually with a strangely portentous air. As though some latent violence or fury sleeps within the airy vocals and ominous bass. The beginnings of this tumult begin to stir in the track’s back half, though the promised crescendo is never quite reached, the sound instead settling back into its stalking, menacing rhythm.
Watch the road you always said to me
As if I could predict it
It’s pretty in the inbetween
Pull me in the ditch
