tAngerinecAt – Something Broke Inside (self-released)
At once challenging and chilling yet hypnotically irresistible art-pop post-punk DIY duo tAngerinecAt release new single Something Broke Inside.
Artist: tAngerinecAt
Track: Something Broke Inside
Label: self-released
Released: 5 February 2021
Instrumentation grates against droning and intrusive beats, the vocal piercingly calling out a waking nightmare with stark imagery. This track surrounds you, gets within you and won’t leave, and as it builds becomes a claustrophobic listen. And yet…if you can separate yourself from the emotion it’s an intriguing and beguiling art-pop song too, showing off the best of the genre through committed experimentalism.
Made up of non-binary Eugene Purpurovsky and Paul Chilton, the two artists first got together in 2003 before evolving into tAngerinecAt in 2014. As we said, this is art-pop at its finest, post-punk at its most boundary and their sound is often full of arresting, unparalleled fusions and experimental free-flows of hurdy-gurdy, whistles, duda, harmonica, and avant-garde layers of electronic music. This experimental and wide-ranging musicality often sets them aside from so many of their peers, but paired with deeply personal lyrics of trauma, poverty, gender inequality and persecution mean their music brings deep challenge to the listener, reflects the ‘serrated edge of the task of being human’ and ultimately delivers catharsis for artist and audience.
‘Have you ever heaved up blood / Shattered like glass / Shouted silently? / What was that?’
Describing the track the duo said: “Something Broke Inside narrates waking from a nightmare, coughing blood laced with shards of broken glass – the psychological aftermath of contaminated intimate relationships, angst, and isolation.”
Despite being recorded music Something Broke Inside evokes the sense of live performance as it hums, and pounds, and crashes. As the swirling melody breaks in and out between echoing beats and by turns tinkling and devastating smashes, the visceral destruction of the lyrics is mirrored.
For all the darkness and fear in this track, there is the resolve for resurrection too and of things remade with determination, of working relentlessly through the pain of processing the impact of others, and while hope is not explicit this is a song of survival as much as it is a song of ruination.
Something Broke Inside by tAngerinecAt is out digitally on 5 February 2021.
Find tAngerinecAt: Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Bandcamp | Spotify
Image: Caroline Julia Moore
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Sarah Lay
A long-standing music journalist she's also co-founder of independent record label Reckless Yes, an author of novels, and when not messing around with words and music, a digital strategist.
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