As we described in a recent preview, Cola emerged from the aftermath of Montreal post-punks Ought, with members Tim Darcy and Ben Stidworthy joined by The Weather Station drummer Evan Cartwright. Lead single ‘So Excited’ introduced their style, a track “powered by a sleek, taut groove,” we wrote, playing “like Ought stripped of its excesses, polished down to something tactile and gleaming yet capable of a kind of perpetual motion.”
This month sees the release of Cola’s debut, Deep in View, on Fire Talk Records, and the trio have unveiled brand new single ‘Degree’ to further whet our appetites. A song which continues the mechanical vibes of the previous song, each of its elements working with a kind of automatonic harmony. “I wanted the beat to feel like the opening and closing of a mechanical valve,” Cartwright explains. “The guitar riff supplies this relentless propulsion and I thought that the drums should act as a stiff regulator: aggressively blocking, then releasing the heavy flow that comes pouring out of the guitar.”
But within this functional system lies a sense of experimentation too. A blurring of genres which incorporates psych and electronic styles, as well as the varying sensibilities of each of Cola’s members. “‘Degree’ is based on a 2-step kinda track I produced while trying to do the fabled and well-trodden path of using guitars in electronic music,” Stidworthy adds. “I came up with this psych-drenched outro that I really enjoyed so I decided to base a song around that chord progression.”
If Stidworthy’s input feels a step away from the machine-like efficiency of Cartwright’s vision, then Darcy’s pushes through the other end of the spectrum. “The character in ‘Degree’ is cycling in and out of these dreamscape states (movie theatre, meditation, etc) and then trying to catch up to something in their day to day life,” Darcy explains. “I picture what it feels like running to catch the bus when you’re in a daze and suddenly have to sprint.” A dream-like, conceptual lyricism which pushes the track into new territory. The sense that the machinations might not be mechanical at all, rather the complicated apparatus of brain chemistry.
Have you been to the movies lately?
Did you read the marquee?
It’s not even started and there is a push to leave
In the midst the alley I had a foggy notion
Hounds nipping at the wheels of the bus
Quite a commotion
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Check out the video directed by Rapapawn below:
Deep in View is out on the 20th May 20th via Fire Talk and you can pre-order it from Bandcamp.
