Track Of The Day: O Hell – ‘I Watch The Women’

A twitchy electronic soundscape that explores the personal confines of imposed femininity, Brighton-based artist and producer Lucy Sheehan aka O Hell has shared their latest single, ‘I Watch The Women’. The follow up to previous releases ‘Down’ and ‘Untangle’, the new track is underscored by a quiet agitation, released via atmospheric synths, crystalline beats and hushed vocals.

After years spent touring and recording music in alternative bands around the UK and fronting PROJECTOR, Sheehan has ventured into fresh sonic territory under their new moniker O Hell. Influenced by a love of eclectic, brooding soundscapes and a desire for creative independence, Sheehan continues to explore their new sound further on ‘I Watch The Women’, deconstructing their notion of femininity and reassessing the personal toll this process can take.

“‘I Watch The Women’ is about feeling distanced from your femininity: being drawn to it and wishing you embodied the classic vision of womanhood, but sensing you’re on another side of it,” Sheehan explains. “The first lines came from a moment I recall, standing across the street from a nice cafe, the women outside looked so polished, real, womanly. I felt like a girl, or something else?’

I wrote it while living mostly in a cabin last winter, quite isolated, picking at drum patterns. I think that feeling of abstraction, even alien-ness, guided the lyrics and delivery towards being off-kilter, almost at odds with the outside world, even the language itself. Later I spent a long time with George Godwin (Moon Panda, Zooni) exploring weird textures, re-amping, tape delays etc to find the track’s atmosphere. Then at Christmas, he handed me a tape of a mix he’d done, to tape, and it was perfect.”

Accompanied by a video, shot by Godwin and directed by Sheehan, the visuals show O Hell traversing the stairwells of a block of flats, reflecting the tumultuous inner journey that’s explored in the track’s lyrics.

Check out the video for ‘I Watch The Women’ below.

Follow O Hell on Spotify, Twitter, Instagram & Facebook

Photo Credit: Annie Dorrett

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

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Track Of The Day: Coco – ‘Rough Water’

Formed in 2019, Coco is a collaborative project consisting of Maia Friedman (The Dirty Projectors), Dan Molad (Lucius), and Oliver Hill (Pavo Pavo), and ‘Rough Water‘ is the first new single since their self-titled debut album last year. Recorded in Joshua Tree, California, this new offering is a departure from the dream-pop sounds on the debut, delivering an epic, rockier sound of guitars and drums.

I felt immediately lifted when hearing the song, bringing to mind the energetic and enigmatic sounds of the likes of The Pixies and The B-52’s. Maia’s celestial vocals are in perfect harmony with the others’, as the trio urge us to “be a mirror”, before the pace briefly changes midway – oozing a reflective inner voice. The song ends on a chant to personal demons or talismans, uplifting our spirits like a “phoenix in the wreckage”; empowering us to steer our own ships. Coco is perfect synergy, the sum of their parts carrying us on a delightful trip with blissful allure. 

Of the track, the band explain:

“The open space out there really lends itself to loud music… It brings about a desire to shout into the emptiness. The lyrics are partly a love letter to the angry spirits and partly a self-entreaty to inhale and relish in the chaos of life.” 

‘Rough Water’ is out now via First City Artists. Next month, Coco head out on a US national tour, supporting Kevin Morby, and will be headlining shows on the West Coast later this year.

Fi Ni Aicead
@gotnomoniker

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Track Of The Day: Shoun Shoun – ‘Sway With Me’

Following the release of their genre-defying do-it-yourself debut, Monsters & Heroes, Shoun Shoun’s (‘shoon-shoon’) lead vocalist and guitarist Annette Berlin ventured out into the woods to direct the music video for ‘Sway with Me‘; a droning, fuzz-drenched art-punk experiment.

‘Sway with Me’ – one of many highlights from the Bristol-based four-piece’s psychedelic LP – shimmers in ethereal feedback, disorienting the listener with its soft-loud-soft dynamic. Opening with delicate lo-fi rhythm, Giuseppe La Rezza’s percussive groove and Ole Rudd’s infectious bass-line build to a crescendo of unpredictable post-punk noise. Piercing through its psychedelic melody, Boris Ming’s abrasive violin strings complements Berlin’s eccentric, distorted guitar riffs and evocative lyrics – “Feel your way through time and space.”

Created with the assistance of Adam Hillmann, Sam Wisternoff, and Caleb Bruce, Berlin’s gothic music video for ‘Sway with Me’ hearkens back to both the silent-era of German expressionism and the golden age of home video; a curiosity presented in scratched monochrome, broadcast decades later on cable TV, recorded onto VHS, and rediscovered during a midnight viewing of Nosferatu and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

Like the track itself, Berlin’s visual language exemplifies the DIY ethos of the band, complementing Shoun Shoun’s idiosyncratic sound. ‘Sway with Me’ – or its German reprise as Monsters & Heroes closer ‘Schwing Mit Mir’ – is an experimental livewire shock to the senses. The perfect introduction to Shoun Shoun’s uncompromising ingenuity.

Ken Wynne
@Ken_Wynne

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LISTEN: Indigo Sparke – ‘Pressure In My Chest’

‘Pressure In My Chest‘ is the first track from Australian born/New York based Indigo Sparke’s upcoming album, Hysteria. Profound in its simplicity, the track sets the tone for an album that promises to explore rich emotional depths.

The song begins with soft vocals and guitars, with light touches of percussion shimmering in the background; a gentle track, slow paced with soft notes throughout. As more instruments are introduced, it doesn’t get louder or busier – instead, every line complements every other, so the music swells. It grows bolder as the song ramps up to its most intense point, echoing the sensation of the titular pressure.

The music feels almost minimalist, but only because the different instruments are working together so effectively. They provide a firm foundation for the vocals to dance over, carrying the impassioned feeling of the song; the lyrics float, adrift in the emotion that the song preserves. The lyrics themselves don’t give any direct details of the story that has brought us to this point, but they don’t need to. The sentimental metaphors in the verses, with vague allusions to ambitions and relationships, are universal enough that anyone can project their own personal context onto them.

Regardless of the experiences that cause it, the intensity of the feeling in the chorus is easy to connect to. The lyrics perfectly describe the way that emotions, when they’re powerful enough, feel like they’re manifesting physically and eclipse whatever else is around you in that moment. As a standalone song, ‘Pressure In My Chest’ captures and reflects that sensation. Of the track, Sparke explains:

“In the birth of memory, there is the eternal moment of time. All things exist here. Through night dreams and wishes, and hot tears and laughing stars, I carried myself to the desert to traverse the landscape of history and reconcile the ever present Pressure in my Chest.“

As a teaser for the new album, ‘Pressure In My Chest’ paves the way for a record that is heavy with emotion, beautifully capturing the essence of the most intense feelings people can experience.

Watch the new, Madeline Clayton-directed video for ‘Pressure In My Chest’ here:

Hysteria, the upcoming new album from Indigo Sparke, is set for release on 7th October via Sacred Bones.

Kirstie Summers
@actuallykurt

Photo Credit:  Angela Ricciardi

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