Recommended Tracks: “cherry blossom”, “super powerful”
Artists You May Like: Crooked Colours, Tender, Glass Animals
Multi-million streaming duo slenderbodies have dropped their much-anticipated EP are we? Max Vehuni and Benji Cormack each poured their hearts out all over this release in the form of introspection and cogent soul-searching. There’s new instrumentation coupled with distinctive lyrical accounts. are we? follows the pairs previously released full-length works; komorebi and sotto voce, and EP fabulist.
are we? inaugurates with “cherry blossom,” a California dream-pop diddy that bathes in a state of bliss and synth. It’s an experimentation into itty-bitty particles of integrated sound finding the main character admiring the beauty and simplicity of colors.
About the song, “We went in the studio with Jeremy from Marian Hill at the top of the year and he was working with a ton of granular synthesis on vocals and foley samples. If you’re unfamiliar, this kind of synthesis involves taking a really small sample (“a grain”) of a sound and warping it through repetition or stretching. You end up with these really wild sonic characteristics by focusing on such an atomic piece of sound. We were super inspired by this, so when we sat down to write “cherry blossom” we wanted to apply the same technique to our guitar. Every synth in the song is some amalgamation of vocals or guitar, granularized and melded with other found sounds.”
Next comes “favorable colours” a song that trails off from the scenery of the beginner track. There’s palpitating percussion linked with the musical group’s breathy vocals. There’s an element of stimulating synth highlighting the layered falsetto. A dreamy soundscape is offered by “lime ocean paradise” and vivid imagery within “mirror,” a song about having one’s heart set on someone but preserving the friendship and wanting so desperately to be able to confess your feelings to that person. It centers around an upbeat groove with a linear melodic vocal line. They sing, “Ain’t nobody else but you, ain’t no way to cut me loose, no more hiding in my room, talking to my mirror like it’s you. Wish that I could tell the truth, toss my feelings out for you, this can’t be out of the blue, talking to my mirror like it’s you.”
Both “focus,” which is a product of a quarantine zoom co-write with Los Angeles-based artist Tim Atlas, and “superpowerful” dropped before the EP’s initial release date. slenderbodies’ remarkable assemblage of melodies concludes with midtempo, free-and-easy “easier” featuring Joey Pecoraro.
are we? is a summary of the band’s sonic portfolio while offering a brand new introduction.
You can listen to are we? on platforms like Spotify and Apple Music.
slenderbodies will be heading out on tour early this fall:
August 18th – Charlottesville, VA
August 19th – Columbus, OH
August 20th – Detroit, MI
August 21st – Indianapolis, IN
September 17th – Berkeley, CA
September 18th – Las Vegas, NV
September 25th – Morrison, CO
Keep up with slenderbodies:
Website // Instagram // Twitter // Youtube
