To celebrate the announcement of the record, Shaina Hayes has unveiled new single ‘Tempest’. Like previous tracks before it, the song finds Hayes meditating of the cycles and rhythms of her rural life, finding both solace and wisdom within nature’s propensity to change, be it dying back or growing anew. So while the track takes place within a personal storm, it is always reaching for a greater perspective. As though attempting to view one’s problems from a higher vantage might work as a kind of inoculation against fear of the unknown, instead installing a deep curiosity. “And I’m not scared of the world / And what it may hold,” as Hayes sings in a telling verse. “I just fear that I won’t / Have time to explore it.”

Watch the video by Flavie Lemée below:

Take the Case of a Rose will be released on the 13th November via Bonsound and you can pre-order it now from the Shana Hayes Bandcamp page.

Photo by Charline Clavier

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It is this experience which ultimately came to shape Automatic, Mali Obomsawin’s new full-length, coming this autumn again via Out Of Your Head Records. The period saw the Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalist, singer and composer gain access to a vast quantity of ethnological recordings of the Abenaki language made in the mid-1900s, material previously held exclusively at Obomsawin’s alma mater, Dartmouth College, allowing her to delve far deeper into the history of her ancestors than ever before and reclaim the material from the outsiders who seized it. What results is a record crafted by an Odanak person directly from Odanak voices, working against the external curation and contextualisation which can drain a culture of its life. “Behind Automatic is a deep awareness about institutions’ predatory relationship with Native material,” Obomsawin explains. “I wanted to make a record that institutions couldn’t own.”

A host of collaborators help bring the sound to life, with Andrew Broder (turntables, electronics), Adam O’Farrill (trumpet), Taylor Ho Bynum (cornet), Allison Burik (bass clarinet), Yuma Uesaka (tenor saxophone), Noah Campbell (tenor saxophone) and Zack O’Farrill (drums) all lending their talents, as well as longtime collaborator and other half of Deerlady Magdalena Abrego (electric guitar). But in truth the record’s cast is larger by orders of magnitude. Because, with help from Broder’s turntables, Obomsawin is able to reclaim a community from within the ethnological study, her work not aiming to chisel the material into a neat narrative but instead liberate the authentic chorus of voices from which it was made. “The turntable is an instrument that explores time and temporality,” as she continues, “and is able to give a form of agency to the ancestors in the recordings.”

The lead single and title track of Automatic offers an encapsulation of this style. Here, Obomsawin’s own voice is presented alongside that of her great-grand relative, Malian, eroding the temporal distance between two individuals and thus collapsing the distinction between then and now. If the Western act of studying and recording the Abenaki people was a process of commodification, then Automatic represents the opposite. Not merely a repatriation but a complete reversal, Obomsawin taking that which has been desiccated for preservation and rehydrating it so that it might once again exist in its natural form.

Photography by Nolan Altvater Gerard, graphic design by Neosha Pendergraft

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With the record now out, latest single ‘Le goût des mangues’ offers a further glimpse in the world of Klô Pelgag. With an atmosphere embracing a certain ambiguity, the sound straddles the divide between the eerie and the intimate with the record’s signature richness. Subtle pop tones are lifted upon something almost orchestral, and Pelgag’s vocals emerge with assured feeling.

The track comes complete with a video directed by longtime collaborator Laurence BAZ Morais. “I aimed to visually translate her poetry by creating a surreal tableau that blends the personal and universal,” as Morais explains. “Including [Pelgag’s] daughter allowed me to capture a sense of childlike innocence and a connection to nature that resonates deeply with Klô’s musical universe.”

Abracadabra is out now via Secret City Records and available from the Klô Pelgag Bandcamp page.

Photo by Benoit Paille

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Now Shaina Hayes is back with the album’s next single. ‘Sun and Time’ is rich and nostalgic, harking back to film-grained memories of summers past as an escape from the cold clutch of the winter months. Told from the perspective of watching a friend struggle through frosty fields and grey skies, Hayes says it’s a song “for anyone who’s ever found themselves slipping into the winter blues.”

Holy weary winter this one’s something
I watch you suffering at its hand
Boggy berry princess we are fading
But I can still make out your laugh

Watch the video below, with direction, cameras, editing and colorization by Charles-David Dubé and Flavie Lemée:

Kindergarten Heart is out on the 23rd February via Bonsound and you can pre-order it now from the Shaina Hayes Bandcamp page.

Photo by Lawrence Fafard

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Insurance agent by day and costumed country star by night, Brent Amaker of Brent Amaker and the Rodeo is something of an enigma. A Southerner in Seattle who channels the classic country spirit while at the same time subverting its tropes, owing as much to the persona-led art rock of Bowie and co. as the macho (so-called) authenticity of the genre’s heavy hitters. “We’re cowboys, living the spirit of the West,” Amaker explains. “We’re not really playing country music, but we’re playing cowboy music. ‘Western performance art’ is what I like to say.” Out early next year on Killroom Records, new album Philaphobia feels like the culmination of this spirit, and single ‘Take It By The Horns’ shows off the project’s infectiously energetic side. Watch the video directed and edited by Sean Downey below:

Philaphobia is out on the 26th January via Killroom Records.

Cool Planet – Don’t Forget to Lock the Door

“A love letter to my tape machine.” That’s how Samuel Szigeti describes Everything on the Floor, the new release from the Cool Planet project. Finding the device discarded at a part time job, Szigeti experimented with the technology and in many ways followed its lead, crafting songs full of nostalgic heart. Single ‘Don’t Forget to Lock the Door’ shows off just how warm and comforting the style can be, conjuring the sense of fond calm unique to crepuscular half-dark. The kind of mood found on “a late summer evening, walking home from work through the park,” as Szigeti puts it, “the lights in the baseball diamond are turning on as the sky goes from blue to orange.”

Everything on the Floor is out now and available via streaming services.

Drench Fries – Poolside

The solo project of Seattle-based songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Levi Nattrass, Drench Fries first caught our attention last year with the cool pop of ‘Out My Window’. “Think classic country regret made hazy by the sea mist of the West Coast,” as we put it, “with dollops of indie rock fuzz and playful pop synths adding an idiosyncratic charm.” Following successful nights sharing the stage with the likes of Pinegrove and Katy Kirby, Nattrass decided it was time to loosen his grip on the project and invite others to collaborate. New single ‘Poolside’ is the first taste of this newly communal form of Drench Fries. A bright, upbeat pop song which opens up on close listens to grapple with almost existential themes.

Layperson – Massive Leaning

Grief as an elemental force. That’s the theme behind Massive Leaning, the latest album from Portland, OR‘s Layperson on Lung Records. Led by Julian Morris and supported by Barra Brown, Steven Skolnik, Sam Wenc, Alex Fermanis and Tyler Neidermayer, the project straddles the line between country and pop, and its moods are equally fluid. An attempt to communicate from within the aftermath of a painful loss, where the possibility of new beginnings is always challenged by an overwhelming despair. As the title track suggests, Morris sits with these competing emotions and thus transcends the traditional break-up album. Not only mourning what is lost or pining for its return, but appreciating the wonder which can fill the gap if only you let it.

L E M F R E C K – After

Hailing from Newport and now based in Cardiff, L E M F R E C K is an artist and producer who casts a wide net for inspiration. Growing up, he played for gospel artists while honing his tastes with the likes of Ghetts and Kano, before immersing himself in the pirate grime scene across Wales and Bristol. His work now wears this rich variety proudly, drawing on both underground and mainstream influences to become something entirely his own. Take single ‘After’ from new release Blood, Sweat & Fears, which might open as a trap number but soon deepens into a smooth slice of R&B that hints towards a hauntological nostalgia.

Blood, Sweat & Fears is out now via Noctown and available from the usual places.

Montañera – A Flor de Piel

Montañera‘s album A Flor de Piel is a lesson in exploration and self-discovery. Writing on previous singles ‘Un Día Voy a Ser Mariposa‘ and ‘Tú – El Borde de Mi Arista‘, we’ve been struck by the manner in which the London-based Colombian artist is able to conjure such diverse spaces within their work. Soundscapes which seem to travel great distances while mapping interiority, and blur the distinction between reality and dreams, all while eschewing any genre conventions. With the album now out via Western Vinyl, we thought we’d share the title track as final proof of this ability. A song which draws on traditional Japanese sounds to offer a mission statement for the record. To find that light inside, and in full memory of the generations which came before, allow oneself to be born anew.

A Flor De Piel is out now via Western Vinyl and you can get it from the Montañera Bandcamp page.

Night Teacher – Comfort

A collaboration between multi-media artist/singer-songwriter Lilly Bechtel, and drummer/writer/producer Matt Wyatt, Night Teacher introduced their blend of doom folk and electro pop back in 2020 with their self-titled debut album—a collection of songs which delved deep into grief to to hope and despair simultaneously. New EP Dear Ellen builds upon this aesthetic and pushes into an increasingly dreamy atmosphere. Take single ‘Comfort’ with its organic ambient textures, all led by Bechtel’s ethereal delivery. The opening is like a dreamy field recording, swaying in the breeze behind bubbling birdsong, before guitar tumbles in gently and Bechtel’s voice enters with warm but sober sincerity.

Dear Ellen is out now and available from the usual places.

Shaina Hayes – New Favourite

Sometimes your parents know best, as typified by Quebecois artist Shaina Hayes. “My folks always wanted me to be a musician,” Hayes explains, “so for me, rebelling meant getting a degree in agricultural science!” But seeing as next February sees the release of her second album Kindergarten Heart on Bonsound, it seems rebellion didn’t stick. Lead single ‘New Favourite’ shows just why we should be glad of the fact, a folk pop track as playful as it is evocative, owing as much to Feist as Hank Williams in the way it paints the excitingly volatile pull of new love.

Oh, I remember the feeling
My feet on the ground
My heart in your soft hands
My head in the clouds

Will Gardner – Remains

Remains, the debut solo album from London-based composer and artist Will Gardner, is a record of abstract emotions grounded in physical reality. A picture of days spent caring for his father through late stages of Parkinson’s dementia, the songs not only bring to light the difficult realities of the process, but push further into the intangible sensations of losing something so familiar so gradually, mourning that which has not yet passed away. Closing the album, the title track encapsulates the release, built around diary entries written by Gardner’s father, fragments of texts which were used to as scaffolding before being removed, leaving just the rhythms and melodies they inspired.

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Alex Nicol has now released the EP, and the rest of the songs build upon this mission. From the slow country croon of ‘An Eye for an Eye’ and its examination of complicity within unjust systems, to the sleepy ethereality of ‘Fabricated Hedonist’ and its acknowledgement of desire. “There’s a lot to learn / From the voices you ignore,” goes one of the verses on ‘Sit Around and Wait’, “how to be respectful / How to breath new life into this broken home.” Another track which presents the present as a kind of failed state, but furthermore urges us to take an active role in its recovery.

This sense of (re)building a home is central to the EP. “I’ll never go to Hollywood / I’ll never be a star,” Nicol sings on ‘Hollywood’. “I’m washed up and my home is here / Between the highway and the corner store.” Here Alex Nicol steps into the shoes of a regretful dreamer rueing their imagined acting career, though the ideas resonate more generally. The track is typical of the EP’s tone, where haunting melancholy is leavened by the small glint of playfulness, as if beneath the weight of any situation persists a wry humour. Not to mention a fondness too, because in addressing the push and pull of home, the track counters the needling sense you should leave to become something else when the things which make where you come from so nurturing. A silver lining far away from the silver screen.

Been A Long Year Vol​.​ 1 is out now and available from the Alex Nicol Bandcamp page.

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Bay Area songwriter Asha Wells is releasing a double single ahead of forthcoming album Water Words on Royal Oakie Records. Written during a testing period of a relationship, Water Words traces the arc of a partnership from dreamy beginnings to the new paths of the aftermath, and this pair of singles sits in the strange space at the heart of this progression. The period where nothing is decided in any one direction, the potential of both promise and regret latent within every detail. Take ‘Blue Angels’ and the way it marbles intimacy and hesitance into its tender tones, like an open palm wanting to grasp what is before it, though wary of the thorns hidden out of view.

Elisapie – Uummati Attanarsimat

Recording under her first name, Juno Award-winning Inuk musician, filmmaker and activist Elisapie Isaac makes music that reflects Canada’s complex history, singing in English, French and the Inuit language of Inuktitut as she combines contemporary pop with her ancestral culture. Her latest single ‘Uummati Attanarsimat’ is a cover of Blondie’s new wave classic ‘Heart of Glass’ translated into Inuktitut. A song that transports Elisapie to her childhood, bringing back memories of dancing to the radio with her cousins. “I remember one night when they played ‘Heart of Glass,'” she recalls. “I must have been five or six years old. They all started dancing like crazy. I observed their joy with admiration. I felt like I was free.” The cover also comes with a video, directed by Philippe Léonard, which comprises of Super 8 archival footage from Quebec’s northern reaches. Watch it below:

‘Uummati Attanarsimat’ is out now via Bonsound and available to download from the Elisapie Bandcamp page.

Her New Knife – douglasland.v1

Philadelphia outfit Her New Knife have recently released lead dreams/flayed so light, a new EP via Julia’s War Records. Through a combination of noise and shoegaze elements, the band weave a deliciously dark sound somewhere between 90s alt rock and contemporary acts like Greet Death, the controlled simmer of its brooding dark always threatening to spill over into chaos. Inspired by the band’s dog, who is said to have the regular old name of Halo 3, ‘douglasland.v1’ is the ideal intro to the aesthetic for anyone uninitiated, its palpable weight settling over the listener and gathering like a thunderhead before the searing climax.

Josie Toney – Extra

With album Extra coming soon on Like You Mean It Records, Olympia‘s Josie Toney has shared the title track to whet appetites for her distinctive blend of traditional and contemporary country styles. It’s a tale of longing dressed in a wistful brightness, inspired not so much by the heartbreak so familiar to the genre but rather the missed opportunity that comes with lonely living. “Is there anybody out there / who wants what I’ve got to give?” she sings in the opening lines. “I have so much extra / more than any one girl needs to live.” But more than that, Toney recognises that others are out there feeling the exact same way, and the song becomes a kind of ode to the possibility of a mutual love, if not yet the love itself.

Extra is out now via Like You Mean It Records.

Jude Brothers – practicing silence / looking for water!

There’s a curious mix of sorrow and whimsy on ‘practising silence / looking for water!’, the lead single from Jude Brothers’ render tender / blunder sunder coming soon on Gar Hole Records. The sense that the distance between the confusion of loss and clarity of peace isn’t all that large, with a considerable overlap between the experiences. Consisting of just Celtic lever harp and vocals, the song explores this territory with a delicate, compassionate tone, cataloguing those things lost amid living while coming to a sense of acceptance too. The track also has a video directed by Adeliza Backus-Pace which featured puppets made by Flying Wall Studios and controlled by Damon and Sabrina Griffith:

render tender / blunder sunder is out via Gar Hole Records and you can pre-order it now.

Langkamer – Hatchet

With new album The Noon and Midnight Manual coming this May on Breakfast Records,  Bristol‘s Langkamer are unveiling a steady stream of new tracks. First single ‘Sing at Dawn’ found “the sweet centre of a Venn diagram of twangy Americana and insouciant indie rock,” as we described it, though in doing so worked through heavier themes and depressive moods. New single ‘Hatchet’ again uses left-field pop energy as a Trojan horse to push into darker territory, taking inspiration from an old poet vocalist/drummer Josh Jarman knew. “He read me a poem about going to the supermarket with his wife, and how much of a struggle it was,” Jarman explains. “His words really stuck with me. How difficult such everyday things had become for them. Even just getting out of a car. It was heartbreaking, the matter-of-fact way he spoke about it.”

The Noon And Midnight Manual is out on the 8th May via Breakfast Records and you can pre-order it now from the Langkamer Bandcamp page.

Matthew Danger Lippman – And

Matthew Danger Lippman practises what has been called “stream-of-consciousness songwriting,” blending psych, pop and indie rock into an inventive and endlessly shifting style able to evoke the flights of fancy of our inner worlds. New album Once You Get Low You’ve Gotta Start Flying Baby promises to build upon this style is all of its bizarre glory, with lead single ‘And’ typifying Lippman’s ability to be earnest and absurd in the same breadth. The sort of thing which only makes sense when caught up within it, dream logic fired by its own momentum and charged by the endearing brightness of its rhythm.

And I had that dream last night
Where I pissed on the third rail
And the charge climbed up the piss trail
And it shot into my dickhole
And electrified me

And I walked around glowing
And I fried everything that I touched
And then I ran into my third grade teacher and she said
“You better watch where you piss”
And watch me now!

Palm Shadow – You Wouldn’t Have It Any Other Way

Based in southern California, Palm Shadow is a songwriter and musician who combines elements of dream pop, shoegaze and folk to create lush, diaphanous songs that shimmer and swirl in an enveloping haze. Debut single ‘You Wouldn’t Have It Any Other Way’ is the perfect introduction, taking the stark emotion of the likes of Phoebe Bridgers or Lucy Dacus and wrapping it up in ethereal ambience. Subtle arpeggiated synths add a cinematic poignancy as the song looks head-on at the tender regrets and heart-quickening inevitability of a complicated relationship, touching on what the liner notes describe as “bad timing, tabled ambitions, missed connections and procrastination guilt.”

Wayfinding – Hiro Up From The Woodshop

Wayfinding is an Edmonton-based project consisting of nêhiyawak members Marek Tyler and Matthew Cardinal alongside musician/artist Cassia Hardy (Wares) and Ryan Beattie (Himalayan Bear, Chet). The band introduced their shoegaze-inflected pomo pop back in November with ‘Bad Bloods’, which turned out to be the opening track of a self-titled EP set for release next month. It is a collection of songs which explores the full spectrum of memories both personal and cultural to Canada’s colonial history and the people shaped within it. Latest single ‘Hiro Up From the Woodshop’ moves through loneliness and humble compassion to capture the essence of a friendship, as well as the existential weight bubbling beneath even the quietest of moments.

And if you should inscribe
Iambic pentameter on my gravesite
make it a couple of lines
about the first part of my life
No empty accolades
Or poetry infantilized
Just the good times

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With contributions from Audreanne Fillon (cello), Jon Evans (pedal steel), Ben Heard (double bass), Ryan White and Max Izzo (both drums), and additional bass arrangements by Leonard Sauve, the Moulting sound is fluid and tactile. Opener ‘Oleanna’ leans most heavily towards the country end of this style, its lazy rhythms offering a reflective warmth which serves as the ideal underpinning for the crooned vocals, and ‘I’ll Be On Time (The Last Time I Speak To You)’ follows with a similarly wistful tone. ‘Prussian Blue’ emerges from an acoustic line but soon widens into a richer chamber pop atmosphere, maintaining the balance between smoothness and edge inherent in the Moulting vocal style.

With its upbeat tempo, ‘Spinning Out’ offers a country rock driving song, its brightness belying the uncertainty of its lyrics and its motion serving as a balm against such concerns, before ‘Pescado’ introduces something slower and more atmospheric. A careful, shaded song which might be morose or carefree depending on how you hold it up to the light. The closing title track is equally ambiguous in its tone, the sound ostensibly brighter though the vocals decidedly more downbeat. But within the idiosyncratic timings and impassioned yet controlled vocals lies something which seems to exist outside of simple concepts of bright or sad. A scene where death is a freeing motion, the moment the spirit leaves the body and returns home.

Artwork by Mathilde Jobin

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After releasing their sixth album See Through You on DedStrange last February, post-punk icons A Place To Bury Strangers are sharing a series of remixed singles from the record. After offerings from the likes of The Pleasure Majenta and GIFT, the most recent sees Annie Hart take the reins for a reimagining of album opener ‘Nice of You to be There For Me’. A version which strips the harsh immediacy of the original in favour of something reflective and shining, the original’s needle replaced by an ethereal air. Where Oliver Ackermann previously railed against greed with a building volatility, here his words carry the melancholy of hindsight. Mourning mistakes rather than threatening to set them straight.

Illbe – It’s Time

Described as being inspired by the “‘beyond the grave feel’ of Nick Cave’s radical introspection,” Illbe‘s latest single ‘It’s Time’ introduces the dark and alluring tone of forthcoming EP, Long Gone. The project is the alter ego of Liège‘s Gauthier Gilissen, a musician who draws upon cinema as the source of his sound, aiming for something between the nocturnal paranoia of neo-noir and a Lynchian surrealism. ‘It’s Time’ finds its narrator navigating such a world. Searching for answers within an unforthcoming environment, the patient Cave-esque delivery furthering the existential mystery at the heart. Check out the video directed by Corentin Cuvelier below:

‘It’s Time’ is out now and you can get it from the Illbe Bandcamp page. Long Gone will be released next month.

Kelsey Magnuson – Faking It

Following on from previous single ‘Beep Beep‘, Olympia‘s Kelsey Magnuson has unveiled another track from forthcoming debut Don’t Budge on Earth Libraries. Closing out the album, the song again highlights Magnuson’s ability to sound at once earnest and playful, as though the thoughts communicated are entirely meant, yet delivered with a certain self-awareness. But ultimately the needle settles on the sincere side of things, ending on a sense of hope which feels all the more heartfelt for its plainness. “Cuz growing up feels like were faking it ’til we learn to fake it better,” Magnuson sings in the final lines. “Growing up up feels like were faking it so why don’t we fake it together?”

Laveda – Surprise

The music of Laveda always promises lush textures and heartfelt emotion, and new single ‘Surprise’ is no exception. Introducing an upcoming second album to be released later this year on Papercup Music, the single offers a bright, upbeat sound which belies the turmoil of the lyrics. A juxtaposition which both embraces the nostalgia of the dream pop/shoegaze style while also refusing to retreat fully from the realties of living and working through pandemics and other challenges. “Being alive is just getting old,” Ali Genevich sings, “I’m not surprised that I’m not sober.” Check out the video directed by Genevich herself and shot By Derick Noetzel and Valerie Barbosa below:

‘Surprise’ is out now and available from the Laveda Bandcamp page.

Mali Obomsawin – Odana

Mali Obomsawin is a Wabanaki bassist, composer, and songwriter whose work opposes the Western idea that indigenous cultures are somehow inflexible and backward looking, highlighting the continuous process of resistance and adaptation required to survive in the face of colonialism. Obomsawin recently announced a new album, Sweet Tooth, on Out of Your Head Records. A collection of songs which draws on many threads—jazz, folk, Wabanaki stories and Catholic hymns—to explore contemporary indigenous life and celebrate its endurance and creativity, even when faced with great violence and cruelty. “My people have had to innovate endlessly to get our stories heard,” Obomsawin explains. “Learning to express ourselves in French, English, Abenaki… but sometimes words fail us, and we must use sound.” Lead single ‘Odana’ introduces the record perfectly. A ballad first written in the 1700s, it pays homage to the Abenaki reservation in Quebec, Odanak, founded by Obomsawin’s Sokoki and Abenaki ancestors in 1660 as they fled to modern-day Canada to escape Royally-sanctioned persecution by English colonizers.

Pale Angels – Casper

Based between the Welsh city of Swansea and Rahway, New Jersey, Pale Angels make what label Specialist Subject Records describe as “transcontinental punk trash.” They have just announced a brand new record, their first in six years, titled Plastic Legacy pt II and lead single ‘Casper’ is a glimpse of what to expect. For all of its punk rock fuzz and grittily desperate vocals, it’s actually a lot more sincere than SSR’s label suggests. Founding members Jamie Morrison and Michael Santostefano are joined by Vacation songwriter Jerome Westerkamp on drums to create something with a real emotional punch.

Rival Consoles – World Turns

Rival Consoles, the recording project of London-based musician and producer Ryan Lee West, is set to release new album Now Is via Erased Tapes next month, and latest single ‘World Turns’ welcomes listeners into the blended, digital and acoustic soundscapes West creates. There’s a certain minimalism to the Rival Consoles sound, even if the tag doesn’t quite do justice to the detail of the songs. A sense of clarity developed via a central repetition. This single, for example, is “built around this pendulum-like bass, that constantly drives the piece forward,” as West explains. Minimalism in the way of fine machinery. An elegant coherence to design. “I like having parts in music which are repetitive but everything else is changing around it,” West continues, “almost like a kind of hidden structure, because the repetition becomes more subliminal.”

Secret Shame – Luxury Bitch

“A ferocious, no holds barred descent into the depths of a psyche, emerging if not triumphant then somehow born again.” That’s how we described ‘Hide’, the last single from Asheville post-punks Secret Shame. Next month sees the release of the band’s long-awaited new album Autonomy, and new single ‘Luxury Bitch’ is every bit as intense, barrelling headlong into anxieties surrounding mental health and the knock-on effects such struggles can bring. “Will you still be there / to hold me when I am trying,” asks lead Lena Machina, “when I am losing and when I lose?” If Autonomy represents Machina pivoting towards a new direct approach to songwriting, then ‘Luxury Bitch’ shows exactly what you can expect.

Sheenah Ko – Eyes of the Ego

Montreal electronic artist Sheenah Ko makes introspective and sophisticated pop music in the vein of Kate Bush or Björk. Earlier this summer, Sheenah Ko released her sophomore album The Future is Now, what she described as “a cautious reminder to take advantage of the little time you’ve been given in our wonderous world.” Since the record’s release, Ko has unveiled music videos for several of the tracks, the latest being for ‘Eyes of the Ego’. Directed by Anne Marie Munoz, the video was made with a 100% female, majority LGBTQ+ cast and crew, starring filmmaker/artist/actor Katharine King So and Le Couleur vocalist Laurence Giroux-Do alongside Ko. “Passion and anger are manifestations of the ego; that can drag us deeper and deeper into our minds, into a dream where we can’t escape,” Ko explains “This video is a representation of the exploration of the self, to identify and accept the ego as a part of us, but it does not have to be us or define us. To realize we are the eyes behind our ego and that we can be the observer of the ego.”

Future Is Now is out via Lazy At Work and you can get it from the Sheenah Ko Bandcamp page.

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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

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