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  • Self-released
Best New Track


It's always fascinating how the emotional context to a particular sound can change based on what else happens to be going on in the frame. In the case of "Ungirthed", what seems to be the first track from a new project started by a member of spazzy electro-pop outfit Gobble Gobble, the transformed sound in question is the sort of pitched-down post-Burial ghost voices that in the past few years of music have often come to represent loss, loneliness, and maybe even death. (David Bevan wrote a feature about it here late last year.) But as heard here, next to a crazily addictive indie pop melody from singer Megan James, the ghosts sound liberated from purgatory and ready to join the party. The synths are warped and churning forward with an oblong gait as tinny electro drums tap out the beat, but it's James' voice at the center of this thing that keeps the ear coming back. In a time when so many lead vocals are buried and distant and dialed in from a memory, she sounds wonderfully present and clear and full of energy. "Ears ringing/ Teeth clicking/ Ears ringing/ Teeth clicking" goes the nifty little refrain, another affectionate tug from a song that seems to pull you closer with every bar.

[via Altered Zones/Weekly Tape Deck; mp3 from Purity Ring's Tumblr]

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