Hailing from Jakarta, Indonesia Strange Fruit have been playing synth / motorik / krautrock / electro music for over a decade and have now released a wonderfully trippy new record – Drips.
Beginning with the bouncy, blissful “Pouvoir Moteur,” Dino Kristianto‘s repetitive, robotic beats instantly get your head and feet bouncing and the synth work by Baldi Calvianca and Irza Aryadiaz and Nabil Favian‘s bass line locks in the groove. John Tampubolon‘s guitar chords drift in and out of the track like a groovy ghost.
“Iridescent” is like a haunting goth synth track you once heard in a car ride one night and have been searching for ever since. The lyrics allude to how light and color can cause euphoric bliss under the right circumstances…and so can the entire track.
Calvianca’s vocals on “Monopolar” sound like transmissions from orbit, and the rest of the track is something you’d want while doing a space walk to gather ore samples on an asteroid, or while drifting in a boat on an Indonesian river, or while making out at an afterparty…with an android.
The title track closes the EP and appropriately has Tampubolon’s guitar sounding like its melting like a slow-burning candle As if these four tracks weren’t cool enough, the EP includes the Jonathan Kusuma “Hypnodubmix” of “Iridescent” and four different versions of “Monopolar”: remixes by Tom Furse and Hardway Bros and then two live dub mixes (one with and one without vocals) by Hardway Bros. The Furse mix is especially good and makes the track even more psychedelic.
This is the kind of EP that makes you want to track down everything else a band has to offer.
I’m not sure if I knew ambient trance music was a thing until I heard OrangeTone’s newest EP, Breachlight.
The sound and feeling is as bright as the EP’s cover, beginning with the shining title track. It bubbles with synth bass tones and stuff that sounds like the happiest video game you’ve ever played while also relaxing you at the same time.
“Silkloom” is what you’d hear as you land on a vibrant planet where plants grow and flower by soundwaves. “Joie” drifts into your mind like a pleasant wind off a warm beach and makes you feel like you’re about to embark on something big.
“Dream Spiral” features guest vocals from diana starshine to elevate the track into a modern house classic. It has to be blowing up nightclub floors by now. “Solar Daze” ends the EP with sounds that perfectly resemble the title – shining keyboards, trippy beats, and happy bass.
The whole EP is blissful. You’ll want this as the weather gets warmer, and especially when it gets colder.
Eve Maret‘s Diamond Cutter album is a neat blend of electro, house, Italo disco, orchestral, motorik, and probably a couple other genres (Dub? Pyschedelic?) I’m missing.
“Hit U with a Banger” is indeed a banger and combines bumping disco thumps with Mort Garson-like synths. “I Love You Babe” would fit onto any Italo disco compilation of tracks from the early 1980s. Maret’s simple title vocals are looped over and over as groovy bass mixes with sweaty synths. “Break the Chain” is a full-on electro trip, as if Sleigh Bells went weirder instead of louder. “There’s nothing to grasp, just change. Nothing to touch. Rearrange,” she sings / purrs. It’s a Zen lesson hidden in a lava lamp’s flow.
The echoing drums of “Gethsemani” add trip hop (There’s a genre I forgot.) to Diamond Cutter‘s sound as Maret sings about how our perceptions shape our reality. The synths on “Shield” sound a bit like a distant alarm clock while the beats dance along a sidewalk outside an industrial nightclub (Another genre!). Ending with poppy, groovy “Home,” Diamond Cutter calls for the delights of “a place where I can rest my bones” with Maret’s “chosen family.” It’s a dream for a place one can prepare “a meal with five courses” and live one’s life as “a red hot vixen.” We all want the same thing. I recently heard the phrase, “Some people is so poor, all they got is money.” This dream is the opposite of that. It’s the better one.
The rest of the album consists of instrumental versions of all the tracks, showcasing Maret’s skill at layering all these sexy, trippy, and groovy sounds. It’s a whole bonus album for all of us.
The album’s title refers to a Buddhist sutra that focuses on emptiness of the mind and burdens within us, and how one sees clearly through that emptiness (and that’s a massively simple explanation). Maret has said that she made the album to be as pure an expression of herself as she could get in that moment. She cuts through the chatter and focuses on her art. We could all learn from that.
The seemingly ageless electro icon Gary Numan summed up his show at Indianapolis’ Vogue Theatre well when, during a pause in his set, he said, “I didn’t know what to expect, but this is fucking amazing.”
This was the fourth time I’ve seen Numan and his band, and they always bring it. Each set feels better than the last, and this one was loud, powerful, and a performance.
First up were Tremours, a good shoegaze duo from Los Angeles. They put on a solid thirty-minute set of reverb-thick guitar and echoing vocals from Lauren Andino and hypnotic drumming from Glenn Fryatt. My friends with me at the show were reminded of Belly, Lush, The Sundays, and Ladytron during their set that was both dreamy and drone-y.
Tremours putting us into a dream state.
Numan and crew came out at 8pm sharp and opened with two bangers out of the gate – “Halo” and “Metal.” Right away, the whole band was clicking and the crowd, which ranged in ages from twenties to seventies and band shirts ranging from Nitzer Ebb to All Them Witches, was cheering. Many hadn’t seen Numan before then, and I think he hadn’t played in Indianapolis in quite a while, so everyone was hyped.
L-R: Harris, Chris Payne, Numan, Slade, Jimmy Lucido
Guitarist Steve Harris was in great form, creating weird riffs and baffling people with his strange antics that seem to be a reflection of how all the sounds are affecting his brain. Teaming him with Tim Slade on bass is genius because the weird energy they bring creates a strange dance that works well with the roar of sound they create.
Following his classic “Down in the Park” with “M.E.” was a great addition to the set. I’d never heard him play it live before then, so I was over the moon. After that, Numan and his lads took a moment for him to tell us why his new album wasn’t finished or released for the tour — mainly due to his wife, Gemma, undergoing multiple serious health scares. As a result, his songwriting has been seriously delayed. He heard some new music playing from the bedroom of his daughter, Raven, and had planned on stealing part of it for a new track. He asked who it was, and she said, “It’s me.” The next thing we knew, Raven Numan joined her dad and his band on stage to perform her song “Nothing’s What It Seems.”
Raven Numan on lead vocals.
After rousing applause for her, Dad Numan unleashed two more heavy-hitters: “Ghost Nation” and “Love Hurt Bleed” (which always kills live). He played, “Cars,” of course, and I love how he puts a different spin on it with each tour. My friend, Bill, said, “It’s like I never heard that song before.”
Gary Numan is here in my eardrums.
He ended the main set with “Are Friends Electric?”, which has rapidly become my favorite song to hear during his shows. It just hits you. The encore included “The Gift” and “My Name Is Ruin.”
You couldn’t help noticing how often Numan and his band were smiling and laughing. At one point during the show, Numan thanked the crowd and said, “I didn’t know what to expect (playing at a small venue in Indianapolis on a Sunday night), but this is fucking amazing.”
Yes, Mr. Numan it was.
Photo by Bill Wilkison
Keep your mind open.
Thanks to the chap who scored this and let me photograph it.
Eve Maret (sounds like “muh-ray”) is a Nashville-based experimental artist and composer who employs a wide array of electronic media and techniques in her various disciplines, exploring the possibilities of personal and communal healing through creative action.
Over twelve tracks, her upcoming album Diamond Cutter is an exploration of the space where strength meets vulnerability. The title comes from an ancient Buddhist text of the same name, and it’s out April 17th.
Drawing inspiration from nineteenth-century orchestral and choral works, the Fluxus movement, Kosmische Musik and funk, Eve makes use of digital and modular synthesizers, a vocoder, clarinet, electric bass, guitar, and field recordings to create works that range from lush cinematic compositions to space disco. Eve’s music practice is a conversation with her numerous curiosities, manifested in the form of video art, drawing, dance, ritual, and cymatics.
Today, Eve shares the single, “Gethsemani.” The song came to her in a dream while she was visiting a monastery, and she later actualized the music she heard in her head. Named after the biblical garden, the track is inspired by Eve’s Catholic upbringing, a part of her past that she admits is complicated and racked with guilt. Fast forward to today and Eve had a bit of a viral moment on her Instagram page recently, where a clip in which she was dressed as a nun during a recent live set resulted in one of her widest audiences yet on the platform.
On the new single, Eve shares:“Growing up Catholic was…complicated. It was a decision that was made for me, and it’s all that I knew. I was taught that from the moment I was born, I was sinful. Not only that, but with a name like Eve, I truly felt responsible for anything bad that happened around me.
“Dressing up like a nun and playing music felt like a random idea at first, but in retrospect, my life has been building towards this culmination point for years. I’m re-contextualizing my wounds to empower myself. I’m taking the parts of Catholicism I appreciate and re-appropriating them. I am devoted to music, to knowing myself, and to having fun in the process.”
Check out the new video and single via YouTube, pre-order the album here, and see below for upcoming live dates in Knoxville and Memphis.
Eve’s music has been featured on Echoes Radio and Iggy Pop’s BBC radio show Iggy Confidential. “Synthesizer Hearts,” off of Eve’s 2020 release, Stars Aligned, appeared on BBC Radio 6 Music’s B-List in December 2020 and premiered on Mary Anne Hobbs’ BBC Radio show “Music From The Near Future.”
In 2021, Eve contributed to Moebius Strips, an audio installation and companion album honoring the work of electronic music pioneer Dieter Moebius. Other contributors include Geoff Barrow (Portishead, Beak), Sarah Davachi, Jean-Benoît Dunckel (Air), Mark Mothersbaugh (Devo), Phew, Hans-Joachim Roedelius (Cluster, Harmonia), Michael Rother (Harmonia, NEU!) and Yuri Suzuki. She has been praised by the likes of WIRE Magazine, Chicago Tribune, DJ Mag, Bandcamp, and more.
In 2022 and 2023, Eve and her collaborators Dream Chambers and Belly Full Of Stars composed a live-score for FW Murnau’s 1922 film, Nosferatu, which they performed in theatres across the United States. Collaborating is an important aspect of Eve’s creative path, and she has an on-going dance music project called GLAZIER with her partner Scott Glazier, as well as a synth-rock duo, Eardrummer, with longtime friend Adrienne Franke. Eve has performed across the United States and internationally, alongside artists such as William Tyler, Guerilla Toss, MATMOS, JEFF the Brotherhood, and Lydia Lunch.
In addition to her personal creative practices, Eve is committed to providing avenues for others to create and uplift one another. In 2018, She, Jess Chambers, Deli Paloma-Sisk, and Arlene Sparacia founded Hyasynth House, an electronic music collective and education center for female and LGBTQIA+ artists. Together they facilitated workshops, performances, and community-wide conversations in an effort to support and empower marginalized groups.
The founders went their separate ways in 2019, but Eve continues to lead electronic music workshops and to organize live music events in Nashville and beyond, including her work co-producing Nashville Drone, a 6-hour music experience featuring 13 regional artists across genres, in an effort to create an immersive space for the community to connect and recharge.
Eve Maret (sounds like “muh-ray”) is a Nashville-based experimental artist and composer who employs a wide array of electronic media and techniques in her various disciplines, exploring the possibilities of personal and communal healing through creative action. She has been praised by the likes of WIRE Magazine, Chicago Tribune, DJ Mag, Bandcamp, and more.
Drawing inspiration from nineteenth-century orchestral and choral works, the Fluxus movement, Kosmische Musik and funk, Eve makes use of digital and modular synthesizers, a vocoder, clarinet, electric bass, guitar, and field recordings to create works that range from lush cinematic compositions to space disco. Eve’s music practice is a conversation with her numerous curiosities, manifested in the form of video art, drawing, dance, ritual, and cymatics.
Her upcoming release Diamond Cutter is out April 17th, 2026. Over twelves tracks, Diamond Cutter is an exploration of the space where strength meets vulnerability. The title comes from an ancient Buddhist text of the same name.
“A diamond represents the invisible potential within everything. Diamonds are perfectly clear, while also being the hardest substance in the universe,” Eve describes. “With this body of work, I endeavored to create music that was both strong and honest. I set aside any genre-specific limitations to allow the pure expression to come through directly. Each song is a commitment to using my authentic voice, to embodying my highest potential by singing the truth.”
Today, Eve shares the second single, “Hit U With a Banger.” It zeroes in on the dance floor, thanks to acid bass squelches and a hypnotically syncopated vocals. The new video, like the song itself, pops with energy and color with themes of empowered transformation at the forefront. Check out the new video and single via YouTube and pre-order the album here.
On the new single, Eve shares:“‘Hit U With a Banger’ is an expression of the idea that the ultimate form of love is acceptance. When I feel frustration about the opinions and actions of others, I channel my angst into music. Expressing my feelings helps me to accept myself as I am – I embrace strong emotions, and they become fuel for my transformation.”
Eve’s music has been featured on Echoes Radio and Iggy Pop’s BBC radio show Iggy Confidential. “Synthesizer Hearts,” off of Eve’s 2020 release, Stars Aligned, appeared on BBC Radio 6 Music’s B-List in December 2020 and premiered on Mary Anne Hobbs’ BBC Radio show “Music From The Near Future.” In 2021, Eve contributed to Moebius Strips, an audio installation and companion album honoring the work of electronic music pioneer Dieter Moebius. Other contributors include Geoff Barrow (Portishead, Beak), Sarah Davachi, Jean-Benoît Dunckel (Air), Mark Mothersbaugh (Devo), Phew, Hans-Joachim Roedelius (Cluster, Harmonia), Michael Rother (Harmonia, NEU!) and Yuri Suzuki.
In 2022 and 2023, Eve and her collaborators Dream Chambers and Belly Full Of Stars composed a live-score for FW Murnau’s 1922 film, Nosferatu, which they performed in theatres across the United States. Collaborating is an important aspect of Eve’s creative path, and she has an on-going dance music project called GLAZIER with her partner Scott Glazier, as well as a synth-rock duo, Eardrummer, with longtime friend Adrienne Franke.
Eve has performed across the United States and internationally, alongside artists such as William Tyler, Guerilla Toss, MATMOS, JEFF the Brotherhood, and Lydia Lunch.
In addition to her personal creative practices, Eve is committed to providing avenues for others to create and uplift one another. In 2018, She, Jess Chambers, Deli Paloma-Sisk, and Arlene Sparacia founded Hyasynth House, an electronic music collective and education center for female and LGBTQIA+ artists. Together they facilitated workshops, performances, and community-wide conversations in an effort to support and empower marginalized groups. The founders went their separate ways in 2019, but Eve continues to lead electronic music workshops and to organize live music events in Nashville and beyond, including her work co-producing Nashville Drone, a 6-hour music experience featuring 13 regional artists across genres, in an effort to create an immersive space for the community to connect and recharge.
Inspired by Miles Davis‘ In a Silent Way, Nick Schofield‘s Blue Hour comes along just when we need it most. In a time when everyone is screaming (inward and outward, for right and wrong reasons depending on the individual) and everyone could use some grounding, Schofield helps us all stand still for a bit.
As the story goes, Schofield improvised and recorded the drum and synthesizer parts for the album in one day as he made his own riff of Davis’ classic album. Schofield then teamed up with trumpeter Scott Bevins who also improvised and recorded his parts in one day and without hearing anything Schofield had made beforehand.
The result is another stunning, beautiful record from Schofield. “Sky Cafe” and “Magic Touch” swell, soar, and soothe. The snappy, crisp beats of “Dream On” and its bright synths belong in a meet-cute scene from your favorite lost 1980s romantic comedy. “Goodnight Sun” and “Imagine Space” are almost krautrock-jazz with their looping synths and echoing trumpet.
“Natural Wonder” is like a lone trumpeter is playing across the street from a New Age bookstore that’s playing meditative synth music through their outdoor speakers. “Hidden Corner” will make you want to curl up in one with the song in your ears and a good book. The looping synths of “Hotel Cloud” relax you as Bevins’ trumpet carries your luggage while you chill out at the bar. “Kyoto Kiss” sends you from a hotel in the sky to a nice, modern spa in Japan where you’re in hurry to leave.
The album ends with the simply named “Times” to remind us that time can stretch if we let it. Time can become meaningless and nothing to worry about if we let it. The whole album reminds us of this in a time when we’re all rushed, grumpy, or just plain exhausted. We need albums like this to settle us.
Keep your mind open.
[I dream about you subscribing.]
[Thanks to Gabriel at Clandestine Label Services.]
I’m not sure how to accurately describe Scattered Purgatory‘s new album, Post Purgatory, but I’m also not sure it’s possible. The Taipei duo blend multiple genres well: Trip-hop, industrial, motorik, synthwave, a bit of goth. The cover looks like an upside-down photo of a flooded underpass with a city (Taipei?) in the background. The world was turned upside-down for the band during the pandemic, and they emerged from it, like all of us, a bit puzzled by how time and space worked and what was certain. Human relationships and airy expanses craved during isolation now felt kind of weird. Time felt like “it can heal or it can destroy,” as they mention in the notes for the album.
“Atata Naraka” has wild tenor saxophone (courtesy of Minyen Hsieh) that blasts like its being played in that flooded underpass while you cruise over the floodwaters in a sleek Miami Vice-era boat. The thick bass and fuzzy guitar chords of “Wunai” sound like the set-up to a seduction sequence in a vampire thriller.
“Ephemeral Mind” is a good name for a good track that describes how most of the world felt during and after the pandemic. Our minds, preoccupied with distractions before the pandemic, and calmness of mind, became ephemeral to our doom-scrolling. Emerging from our cocoons made some of us realize we need to put the phone down, while others rushed to fill the silence of the world and our heads with even more distractions. The 1980s goth guitar chords on it are damn cool.
“Thundering Dream” is heavy with low bass and synth stabs that sound like they’re played by robots underwater. dotzio‘s guest vocals on “Moonquake” create a gorgeous trip-hop / chillwave track that you’ll probably put on romantic playlists all year. “Above the Clouds” has heavy metal guitar chords combined with soft vocal sounds and tripped-out synths to make something unpredictable…as is the short “KL20,” which is like Blade Runner background music.
“Ocean City, Mirage Tower” would also fit into a science fiction film as the lead character slurps noodles in a tiny place off a neon-lit alley waiting for robot bounty hunters to show up and ruin everything. It floats along like lotus petal along the rain-filled underpass, drifting from synthwave to dark funk to cinematic piano paranoia.
Time is weird. Scattered Purgatory figured this out years ago and made an album that has a title symbolizing multiple things: Emerging from the weird time of the pandemic (which felt like purgatory for many), becoming new versions of themselves (Post “Scattered” Purgatory), no longer dwelling on the past, mistakes, and regrets (essentially what purgatory is).
Time constantly happens, and yet it doesn’t. No is one really sure what the hell it is. It heals all wounds and also withers away everything. Now is the only part of it that exists. I’m writing this in my present and in your past. You’re reading it in my future and your present. All of those things are now, like this record.
ADULT. is not cooperating. For over 25 years, the dystopian Detroit synth-punk institution founded by Nicola Kuperus and Adam Lee Miller has embodied steadfast frustration, distrust, and apprehension. One might expect the edges to soften with time, but ADULT. is not interested in the comforts of legacy. The duo’s music has never sounded as visceral, urgent, and downright angry as it does on the culminating, uncompromising Kissing Luck Goodbye, their scorched-earth 10th LP and fourth with Dais Records.
Built with upgraded gear and a whole new library of sounds, the material is crushingly dynamic, louder yet clearer, with Kuperus’ commanding delivery given greater prominence in the mix, outlining an arsenal of vivid, caustic calls, chants, and musings. Laughter, whether in the lyrics or as a possessed presence, serves as a leitmotif that speaks to the menacing absurdity of modern times.
“No One is Coming”, the album’s lead single is a poignant, bassline-driven industrial anthem that turns feedback into melody, the track attacks inaction in the face of fascism —
NO ONE IS COMING TO YOUR RESCUE… A lyric that was written in early 2025 and is even more relevant on its release date a year later. A song speaking to moral collapse and political corruption “to a T”. These subhumans attempting to run the show are more concerned with cashing in and political cosplay than the well being of mankind. While working on this album, I read an article from an esteemed environmental scientist about “what’s coming in the future”. What stuck with me was their point that we are entering a new phase in existence where the most important thing we can do is know our neighbors and know the strengths of each other and what resources everyone has. Who needs extra care? Who is on their own? This song was written as a call to arms. Be alert. Be aware. Be prepared. Stand up for yourself and look out for your community. We are better when we are united. Social media is wearing us down. Deluding us. The political landscape is horrifying, distracting, deranged and unhinged. We are seeing this go down in real time right now in Minneapolis… NO ONE IS COMING TO YOUR RESCUE… except ALL OF US! Keep speaking up! Keep using your right to protest and most importantly keep showing kindness to one another.
ADULT. is known for high-stakes catharsis on stage, and recently deployed their back catalog of bass guitar songs from the 2000s, retracing the prescient Anxiety Always era partially out of necessity given the temperature of today’s political and technological dread. The response was instant and palpable: “We were in Paris, and the kids were stage diving. And I was like, this is rad. This is kind of the energy I want to get back into,” Kuperus says. The epiphany coincided with a series of setbacks — Kuperus’ bouts with chronic vertigo, the loss of their close friend and collaborator Douglas McCarthy of Nitzer Ebb, whom the album is dedicated to — all made profoundly worse under the looming regime. “We were stuck in the mud for quite a while after the election,” Miller says. “We had all the concepts, but we would just be like, ‘What’s the point?’” With failing studio air conditioners and dead car batteries (their sacred space for listening back to recordings), they often joked that the album might be cursed. Kuperus adds, “We’re just like everything’s breaking. We’re breaking. We’re broken.”
The sentiment didn’t stick, however, as they found themselves ultimately too super-charged by fury to sit still. From watching Musk’s disgusting nazi salute to seeing their community struggle under the new regime to waiting months for a tariff-inflated replacement subwoofer, the vibe heading into Kissing Luck Goodbye was four middle fingers pointed straight up.
Rather than retreat, ADULT. focused on the process, revisiting their setup, complete with their first new mics in 20 years. They obsessed over textures, amassing a massive sample library taken from old thrift-store albums, previously used and unused ADULT. ingredients and new field recordings, running myriad items, including the buzz of shop vacs, through various pedals. Pause Kissing Luck Goodbye at any moment, and you’re likely to count a dozen things happening at once in strange, dizzying, and dissonant harmony. Together with producer Nolan Gray, whose involvement resulted from a chance encounter (he happened to be the host of the short-term rental property where the two stayed — maybe there is still some luck, after all), the band pushed themselves harder than ever before to build a world with this record.
Songs took shape from unusual places: “No One Is Coming” got its tempo from a skipping record they captured through a cell phone during a bnb stay for Kuperus’ 50th birthday. “None of It’s Fun” blitzes with breathless urgency, high-speed glissades, and pointed lines like “OH I AM TEARING MY GUTS OUT / LOOK AT ME…DO YOU THINK THAT THIS IS AMUSING?” The closer, “Destroyers”, was the last song they recorded and encompasses the techniques that ADULT. has learned not just throughout the making of Kissing Luck Goodbye, but across their quarter-century as a pioneering collaborative project.
ADULT. Live Dates:
Apr 10: Pittsburgh, PA – Spirit Lodge Apr 11: Baltimore, MD – Ottobar Apr 12: Brooklyn, NY – Good Room Apr 14: Raleigh, NC – Kings Apr 15: Atlanta, GA – The Earl Apr 16: Jacksonville, FL – Jack Rabbits Apr 17: Orlando, FL – The Social Apr 18: Miami, FL – TBD Apr 21: New Orleans, LA – Gasa Gasa Apr 22: Houston, TX – White Oak Music Hall (Upstairs) Apr 23: Austin, TX – 29th Street Ballroom Apr 24: San Antonio, TX – Paper Tiger Apr 25: Denton, TX – Rubber Gloves Apr 28: Albuquerque, NM – Sister Apr 29: Phoenix, AZ – Rebel Lounge Apr 30: San Diego, CA – The Casbah May 01: Los Angeles, CA – Hollywood Forever (Masonic Lodge) May 02: San Francisco, CA – Rickshaw Stop May 04: Portland, OR – Mississippi Studios May 05: Seattle, WA – Barboza May 08: Minneapolis, MN – 7th St. Entry May 09: Cudahy, WI – X-Ray Arcade
Miss Grit—the New York-based, Korean-American musician Margaret Sohn (they/she)—announces their new album, Under My Umbrella, will be released April 24th via Mute, and shares the magnetic new single, “Stranger.” Sohn is a bold experimentalist and architect of sculptural texture, known for deftly moving between analogue and digital, guitar and synths, and creating an immersive cosmos of sound with futuristic frameworks for their searching introspection. For their second full-length album, they’ve lifted the lid on their internal world, lasering in on the anxieties and heartbreak of the past two years. It’s an album that is as immersive and expansive as it is intimate, channeling the noirish atmosphere of classic trip-hop bands, while adding a hefty dose of maximalism and a dream-pop sensibility.
Last year, Miss Grit released a preview of Under My Umbrella with “Tourist Mind.” It was the first taste of new music since Miss Grit’s debut, 2023’s Follow The Cyborg, a concept album in which they built a fluid future beyond the gender and genre binaries, where a non-human machine goes in pursuit of liberation. They were recognized by i-D as a “singular talent” for their “compelling ideas and freewheeling creativity” and by Rolling Stone for their “elliptical, hooky songs that take unexpected turns.” Surrounding its release, Miss Grit was named an “Artist to Watch” by Brooklyn Vegan, a “Breaking” artist by FLOOD, profiled by Rolling Stone as an “Artist You Need To Know,” and beyond. Additionally, they performed for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’s LateShowMeMusic series, and toured supporting Nation of Language, Bartees Strange and The Last Dinner Party.
Under My Umbrella began to take shape when Sohn returned from an intense touring schedule where they’d driven themself around North America totally alone. When they returned home, Sohn found themselves yearning to capture that specific, less restrained energy of playing live. Like Follow The Cyborg, its creation mostly took place in Sohn’s Queens apartment. The music came to them quickly, streams of consciousness with one new guiding principle: don’t overthink it. “I tried not to edit too much or force a moment to happen,” they explain, leaning into big choruses where it felt right. Some guitar sounds were first takes, ditto vocals, thus preserving the immediacy and authenticity of the emotion. As such, it’s a densely layered album, charged with electric crescendos that build to moments of unbridled catharsis. “It feels truer to myself, and more of a representation of what is actually coming out of me,” says Sohn.
With its all-engulfing chorus about trying to out-run feeling betrayed, new single “Stranger” is Sohn’s most ambitious song yet. Ethereal and intense, its gritty breakbeat backbone and sparkly synths give way to emphatic industrial-pop. With this track, Sohn’s long-time mix engineer, Aron Kobayashi Ritch of Momma, stepped up to co-produce. “Usually collaboration is a little bit hard for me – there has to be a deeper connection there,” says Sohn. “But really trusting the people I was working with to put their fingerprint on the music, and them also being close friends, was liberating.” Other collaborators include friends from New York City and Los Angeles: electronic visionary and film scorer Sae Heum Han (mmph), bassist Margaux Bouchegnies (Margaux), singer Eva Liu (Mui Zyu), producer Luciano Rossi (Mui Zyu), drummer Preston Fulks (Momma) and violinist Zachary Mezzo (Catcher).
Watch the Visualizer for “Stranger” Under My Umbrella not only presents Sohn’s gift for complex production, but also the boldness of finding your voice. Many of the songs speak to the idea of trying to wrestle free–of expectations, of being caught up in other people and losing yourself, and of the social anxiety that comes with being overwhelmed by others. “Before, I was really timid about what I said and didn’t say, and that all ended up being molded into something that didn’t feel as relatable to me as it once did,” comments Sohn. “Part of it is due to honoring my feelings and trying to be more honest in my writing. I feel a deep connection to this record that I haven’t felt about my music until now.”
Under My Umbrella will be available digitally and on limited-edition crystal clear vinyl and CD. Miss Grit will play record release shows in NYC on Friday, April 24th at Nightclub 101 and Los Angeles on Saturday, May 2nd at Scribble. Prior, Sohn will appear at Rough Trade in NYC for an acoustic set and signing with free entry along with a pre-order of the album. Fans can RSVP here.
Miss Grit Tour Dates: Sat. Feb. 7 – Los Angeles, CA @ Banned From Eden Fri. April 24 – New York, NY @ Nightclub 101 Sat. May 2 – Los Angeles, CA @ Scribble
