Margaux - More Brilliant is the Hand that Throws the Coin

By Abigail Clyne

Margaux’s folk-rock EP, More Brilliant is the Hand that Throws the Coin, sees a young artist coming into her own. This impressive debut of meticulously rendered love songs showcase an artist breaking free of authority and asserting her own. Complex but listenable, More Brilliant is the Hand that Throws the Coin is a beautifully crafted and triumphant proclamation from an artist who has much to say.

The grungy bass line of the first track, “Cave In,” threatens to beat the listener, if not Margaux, into submission. Detailing the feeling of being stuck in someone’s perception of you, Margaux does her best to break out of it, “Climbing out of somebody’s memory/ Clinging to what’s clung by family.” The increasing tempo of the chorus “Lay down/ This is your final offer/ Cave in/ Let go of what you wanted,” creates a pressure cooker to test Margaux’s mettle.

Track two, “Faced with Fire,” is a romantic folk gem. The snow globe-like track perfectly distills the overwhelming desire to hole up with a new lover. Ambient guitars, muffled horns, and Margaux’s soft but sweet vocals knit a sonic cashmere blanket to sink into. On the other end of the spectrum, her debut single, “Palm,” is an ambitious affair that pivots around a mid-song transition from one emotional landscape to another. The beginning is cerebral but upbeat, analyzing the complexities of her relationship. But then romantic love takes over, with Margaux singing “My blushing mind is dreaming when I see your face/ Only that I’d love to love you,” and the song blossoms into a lustful sonic bath. The slower tempo and dreamy electronica allow Margaux’s alluring vocals to take center stage, “Call me out/ Your guess is true/ My head and heels/ Are over you.”

“Hot Faced,” a feminist rallying cry against the trap that is politeness, continues Margaux’s journey towards autonomy. Building on themes presented in “Cave In” Margaux grows more comfortable using her voice to push against the bonds of gender norms. “Is it really safe to say/ If I calculate and sing it softly/ Why is yelling not okay/ A woman’s voice is possibly threatening” cheekily encapsulates and eviscerates the hysterical woman trope. Musically, the track is a push and pull, with Margaux’s lilting delivery of the spell-like chorus, “Please and thank you/ Come right in now/ The King will see you/ Let your guard down” contrasted against the free association verses.

The EP closes out with the meditative and musically subdued track, “Smaller Home.” A reflection on childhood and the changes adulthood brings, the song is a fitting end for the Seattle bred, but now New York-based, artist. Her low vocals and the swelling of low brass encapsulate the gravity of growing up. “Older stronger wiser think I am/ I think I am” she sings, a beautiful cap to an EP that’s seen Margaux find her power.

More Brilliant is the Hand that Throws the Coin is out now on Massif Records.

Tony Kill - Love High Speed

By Phillipe Roberts

A genre-less expanse of frayed ideas, Love High Speed is a series of sonic detours taken with giddy abandon. Conducted by Washington D.C.-based artist Tony Kill, the EP presents seven smeared tracks that play right into the enigmatic presentation of their creator, offering little to no clues as to who, or what, we’re listening to beyond fragmented voicemails, clipped field recordings, and twisted singing that phases in and out of audibility. Let the constant distortion wash over you for the first listen, however, and you find yourself in a rich sonic world that makes a virtue out of misdirection. It keeps ambitions high even as the fidelity crawls deeper and deeper underground.

In contrast to the rest of Love High Speed, opener “Dolin Blanc” whistles its way in and keeps things smooth, much like the sweet vermouth that serves as its namesake. A sensuous bassline rumbles under gently splashing drums before dislocating from the groove entirely, playing against ambient swirls of guitar as the scene dissolves away from the pleasant morning reverie. Suddenly, a pen scratches out a signature, and a desk attendant asks if you need help with your bags. You’re fully checked-in to his surreal hotel now, and Tony Kill is free to really let loose for some twisted fun. Because for all of the sweetness and order of “Dolin Blanc,” it’s the rough-hewn weirdness of the rest of the EP that allows Tony Kill to really shine, unhinged from the expectation of providing anything for you to comfortably grip onto.

With the bouncing bass from “Dolin Blanc” still present as a holdover, Tony Kill begins his descent on “Heaven Sent,” charging through church organ swells with a chorus of Tonys proclaiming “You’re Heaven Sent” ad nauseum. Other indistinguishable vocals pour in, crying out with a kind of impassioned religious ecstasy that crashes over the main vocal in waves–a brilliant effect that sounds like watching someone have a mental breakdown in the middle of Sunday service.

Crafting these sharp moments of emotional tension is something that Tony Kill does remarkably well across the EP. Particularly so on “Drive,” where distorted shouts pile on top of a screeching guitar solo, which mellows out into a light, bluesy twang, before erupting again in chaos in a perfect mirror of the lyrics–“Intruder alert / Intruder alert.” But with all of this dissonance, Tony Kill isn’t afraid of a satisfying groove. Like the aforementioned “Dolin Blanc,” much of the EP ruminates on stretching simple ideas out into flavorful instrumentals. From the undeniably catchy krautrock pulse of “Gotta Turbo (Truck Stanley),” which almost sounds piped in from a Stereolab or Broken Social Scene rehearsal, to the industrial throb and burbling vocals of “I Am This Close,” it’s clear that Tony Kill knows exactly where to turn on the head-nodding charm.

Love High Speed ends with the instrumentally slight and vocally dissociative “Anyone.” Tony unspools a yawning manifesto, “I don’t fear anyone,” just twice over a creeping groove that hardly shuffles past the one minute mark. Thought it follows the disorienting, dubbed-out odyssey that is “Suddenly Unknow Everything,” “Anyone” feels like the perfect place to conclude his latest adventure–fearless and unphased, laughing in the face of any potential detractors before they even get a chance to respond. Love High Speed keeps you on your toes–and is well worth the disorientation–but don’t expect any congratulations from Tony for making it through to the other side. He’s above it all, distinctly unimpressed that you’re finally on his level.

Arc Iris - Dylan & Me

By Gerard Marcus

The music of of Rhode Island’s Arc Iris has always come across to me as other-worldly. It’s a mix of their genre fluidity, the attention to detail in both the sound and structure of their songs, their overall musicality, and their mind boggling live performances. Everything they do blends together to present a fully realized universe of its own, an art so specific that it could only come from the depths of the minds that crafted it. Interpreting anything about their world and creating something within it is a daunting task, but that’s exactly what animator Anne Beal has done with Arc Iris’ new video for “Dylan & Me.”

In the video, Beal’s use of various animated elements allows her to make a visual representation that beautifully compliments the expansive realms of Arc Iris’ music. In a musical universe that feels boundless, Beal chooses to represent constraint. Pattens tesselate, band members are found frozen in time, figures effortlessly glide between designated frames before spinning into fractalized versions of themselves. The whole work seems to be stuck between constant motion and complete stillness–this tension is what gives the video its transfixing power. A surreal dream space showing infinite possibilities even in worlds with restraints.

Arc Iris will be starting a tour soon including residencies in Brooklyn, NY at C’mon Everybody and shows in Burlington, VT. Check out full dates down below, and if you are here in Brooklyn with us, be sure to go check them out live. They have consistently produced some of the more memorable shows I’ve seen throughout the years.