Lonely Love from our debut EP. Recorded at the Third Man Recording Booth in Nashville, TN on 10/09/22.

LONELY LOVE (Third Man Recording Booth Version)

Disillusioned

“Easy” took musical cues from Glaxo Babies, The Zombies and Tangerine Dream. It opens up with ambient 808 drums, atonal guitar, and a dissonant Prophet 5 synth, simulating a world on the verge of collapse.

The instrumentation is then balanced by Laura’s breathy and seductive vocals as she sings of political woes in a time of crisis. (Very fitting considering this Tuesday’s possible arrest of D.T. & the consequential uprising that he has already inspired.)

We wrote this song between the fall of 2020, amidst the BLM actions, mass shootings, chaos in Congress on through to the insurrection of January 6th.

When Laura longingly sings, “Sensations… temptations… when it was easy”, she is not only reflecting these continued times of crises, but also conjuring up fond memories of only a few years ago when times seemed a lot easier to enjoy.

Easy

Beaches

Video Store

Someone I Used To Know

Ridgewood, Queens, indie rock/post-pop group YO KINKY share their third single, "Wire," which finds the duo of Laura Wight and Tom Unish layering minimalist grooves in a dark and seductive setting. The song starts off with a driving beat followed by a repeating guitar motif that pushes forth until the bass fills out the sound with its own recurring pattern. As the Roland MC-202 taps a Morse code-style pattern, Wight discloses  “Anyone can tell I'm in line with the wire/Anyone can tell I’m aligned with the truth”. Saturated in upward portamentos, elasticity, and desire, Wight’s distinct delivery slides her voice into the warm space, claiming control. As the song jolts forward, dissonant melodies join the atmosphere as it propels toward an expansive synth climax.

Yo Kinky

Wire

Yo Kinky is a Ridgewood, Queens, New York, post-pop duo that layers seductive patter lyrics over shimmering angular guitars and drum machines. Following the premiere of their first single on the Tower Records site in November and positive coverage from such publications as The Revue, which called their tunes “engaging, infectious, and smart”, Yo Kinky are already forging a name for themselves among the disillusioned and hopeful.

Tom Unish and Laura Wight met at the start of 2020, bonded over shared musical interests and immediately started working together on songs. Over the course of the pandemic, they recorded and produced their self-titled debut EP out 02/26/21. These songs touch upon themes such as truth, adaptability, love and anticipation as Wight’s bright vocals are delivered with a conversational precision calling to mind acts like X, Sleaford Mods, and Blondie.

“Anyone can tell I’m in line with the wire/Anyone can tell I’m aligned with the truth” is the opening line of the EP, blatantly sung over a propulsive and slinky rhythm. The sound is warm and concentrated recalling early trip-hop, yet it is not an exercise in nostalgia. Instead, “ Wire” sounds like a track from a dark but ravishing future as the upward slides on the word “true” resonate long after the song ends. 

The lead single, “Someone I Used To Know”, expands the stereo image with a wall of undulated guitars carrying Wight’s sweet and acerbic vocals. While the lyrics may appear dark, Wight’s deep playfulness keeps things buoyant and seductive. Since its release, “Someone I Used To Know” has been in heavy rotation at WFMU, and was featured on the show Three Chord Monte’s best songs of 2020. 

Next track “Lonely Love” takes things further with grimy allusions to maintaining the survivalist grind of routine life while dreaming of better days to come. Furnished with a British-tinged declarative style, Wight sings, “I’ve got a lonely love on my mind/Sitting around and holding tight ‘til the might is right” over Unish’s revving synth and gritty guitar. 

“Resistance,” their 2nd single, finds the duo exploring a more delicate yet simultaneously strong and confident mood. With Unish’s spaced-out, rockabilly-tinged guitar bouncing through the song’s driving, hypnotic layers of sound, they paint a sonic landscape that yearns for much-needed intimacy in a time of social distancing and isolation. As Wight’s vocals float above the surface, singing “Love is all we breathe” and “Swing me off my feet,” she transports the listener to places of rich yet strange beauty. “Resistance” alludes to keeping sanity amidst chaos and finding contentment from the small things in life. 

Infused with a saucy, baffled sentimentality about growing up in Los Angeles and facing the bewildering forward rush of time, the final song “Stretch” closes the record on a note that is reflective yet hopeful, and ultimately, resilient.

YO KINKY!

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