LISTEN: Susanna – ‘The Dancing Snake’

In a stunning and sorrowfully emotional unfolding it seems unjust to describe ‘The Dancing Snake’ the latest offering from Norwegian artist Susanna, as anything but a treasure.

Inspirited by the ghost of the late poet Charles Baudelaire (1821-67), Susanna brings the cynical gaze of a wandering civilian reflecting upon the universe around him to her majestic songwriting. With a captivating performance of dark, velvet-like piano, ‘The Dancing Snake’ and its shivering essence seems to rotate through the soreness of Baudelaire’s historic perspective.

Floating above the instrumental, Susanna’s voice emerges ‘The Dancing Snake’ to move in modern times with a fluttering vocal dreamscape that is anchored to the earth by its ringing chords and escapist lyrical content. Images from “I breathe the tang of the ocean / in the deeps of your hair”, to “my dreaming soul casts off and sets its course for distant skies”, take Susanna’s listeners on this strange fantastical journey where they are whisked away to hear the harmonious marriage between immaculate musicianship and storytelling.

‘The Dancing Snake’ is a skeletal arrangement of a tune that needs no more than itself. With early influences, from the earnest Bob Dylan to the more contemporary Mothers, Susanna has thrown her work into a blender – derived only from the best of folk, classical and art – and created an exquisite soundscape. ‘The Dancing Snake’ is an exhibition in itself, of impressionism and the pondering experience of being alive.

Baudelaire & Piano, the upcoming album from Susanna, is set for release 11th September via SusannaSonata.

Jill Goyeau
@jillybxxn

Photo Credit: Martin Rustad Johansen

 

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Track Of The Day: MOURN – ‘This Feeling Is Disgusting’

A bright burst of guitar noise to counteract feelings of anxiety and uncertainty, Barcelona trio MOURN have shared their latest single ‘This Feeling Is Disgusting’. Lifted from their upcoming album Self Worth, which is set for release on 30th October via Captured Tracks, the song is an energetic effort to reclaim some kind of confidence when thinking about the future.

“The song is really about…being anxious about what’s going to happen, not knowing if you’re going to be able to earn a living or not,” the band explain. Juxtaposing their serious unease with curt and relatable lyrics like “it sucks”, MOURN’s latest offering is as honest and cathartic as its title suggests. “It’s a really happy song,” the trio continue, “but one that represents being stressed out. The idea of ‘I don’t know if I’ll be able to afford an apartment any time soon, but hey, let’s dance and have fun!’ That’s the concept behind it.”

This duality is explored further in the accompanying video, directed by Alex Fernández. The visuals show the group in therapy, playfully trying to work though their feelings of angst and anxiety. The band want listeners to know that it’s “ok to go to therapy and to take care of yourself,” and that feeling unhappy is not a permanent state of emotion. It’s this mindset that fuelled their new album Self Worth, which looks set to be a riotously uplifting listen.

Watch the video for ‘This Feeling Is Disgusting’ is below and follow MOURN on bandcamp, Facebook & Spotify for more updates.

Photo Credit: Cristian Colomer Cavallari

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

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LISTEN: Æ MAK feat. Seba Safe – ‘i dance in the kitchen’

Joyfully schooling listeners in how to make uplifting kitsch-pop tunes under the strangest of circumstances, Æ MAK has shared her latest single ‘i dance in the kitchen’. Featuring the vocals of fellow Irish artist Seba Safe, the track is lifted from Æ MAK’s upcoming EP how to: make a kitsch pop song to show the world, which is set for release on 18th September.

Embracing production duties for the first time on her new release, Æ MAK – aka Aoife McCann – wrote and recorded her new EP during the Covid-19 lockdown period, and ‘i dance in the kitchen’ is the first taste of her delightfully upbeat new sound. Made with “100% childsplay and solo belly laughs”, the track and accompanying video showcase McCann’s carefree and vibrant attitude to letting go of any performance qualms and focusing on making music that makes you feel good.

Based around the idea of being apart from your lover during lockdown, ‘i dance in the kitchen’ will resonate with those who want to transform their uncertainty into an energetic moment of bright and cathartic clarity. Watch the video for the track below and follow Æ MAK on Facebook and Spotify for more updates.

Photo: Tim Shearwood

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

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Track Of The Day: Nuha Ruby Ra – ‘Cruel’

As part of the promotion for her latest track, Nuha Ruby Ra was asked by the PRS Foundation to put together a playlist which featured, amongst others, such diverse names as Billy Fury, Nina Simone, Thee Headcoatees and The Birthday Party. Reading between the lines, if there’s one thing that links these artists (and the many other acts cited as influences by Ra in past interviews) and her latest single, ‘Cruel’, it’s an ability to craft narrative in song form, typically with a dark tinge. ‘Cruel’, the latest cut from forthcoming EP How to Move,  is perhaps even more darkly hypnotic than debut ‘Erase Me’, and sees Ra morph multiple genres into a singular whole.

Opening with a bass sound and vocalisation that most recalls the dark Swedish psych of GOAT, the track’s opening two minutes are compelling, if belying in what is to come. A middle eight bass breakdown, of sorts, breaks off the song’s first half, before Ra opens up her singing style in Siouxsie fashion and sax murmurings creep more prominently into the mix.  By the time the whole thing has simmered and come to a boil, its instrumentation, replete with drum rattles and guitar riffs, has moved closer to free jazz. Ra’s backing band – Ian Wilson (guitar) and Julie Hair (percussion) of the similarly dreamy Isolation Society, Interpol’s bassist Brad Truax, and Vestments saxophonist Nikki D’Agostino – are an ideal ensemble to accompany her voice, which is by turns eerie, insistent and direct, overlaying itself with whispered incantations that pre-empt or echo lyrics and give the song the hallucinogenic feel of fantasy and nightmare. Its lyrics are clearly deeply personal to Ra, confirmed in social media posts which discuss the topics cited, with the imagery of isolation, bondage, self-sabotage and self-consciousness perfectly evoked by her unique vocal style.

Credit has to be given for Ra too for the accompanying video which, due to recent restrictions, was filmed, directed and edited by the singer in her warehouse workspace.  Similar to the video for ‘Erase Me’, with its deliberately simple colour scheme, and holographic style of overlapping, its raw and (literally) stripped back styling reflects its creator’s willingness to lay bare her soul and her body for her art. Even just by her two singles, Ra is the breakout multi-hyphenate of the year: an artist, a performer, a musician, whose work is both self-reflective and self-reflexive, boundary-pushing yet relatable enough to carry along its listener. What follows will, no doubt, be fascinating.

Watch the new video for ‘Cruel’ here:

‘Cruel’ is out now. Listen on Spotify.

John McGovern
@etinsuburbiaego

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