Hannah Rose Kessler – Come Feel Me (Reckless Yes)
Following her signing to independent label Reckless Yes Cumbria-based Hannah Rose Kessler releases industrial-edged first single Come Feel Me, ahead of a new EP.
Artist: Hannah Rose Kessler
Track: Come Feel Me
Label: Reckless Yes
Released: 12 February 2021
Find it: Spotify
Industrial-edged guitar drones as vocal, beats and percussion build together into a primal heart-beat of rhythm, and a creeping melody winds through it all. There’s a sinister, insidious progression, before the song gives in and explodes – a squall of sound that reveals salvation at its centre.
On Come Feel Me by Hannah Rose Kessler there’s a Rid Of Me-era PJ Harvey influence brilliantly realised here, and a fascinating interplay between the heaviness of guitars, the organic and infectious rhythm, and partially chanted vocal: a chorusline of one continuing through a confusion of expectations and needs.
Showing a real development in her self-production, the single is her first since signing with independent label Reckless Yes following on from 2020’s I Really Wanna and ahead of an EP slated for March.
‘Going through the motions / Maybe there will be a potion / To help me say goodbye / I just hope that I don’t cry / So lonely’
About Come Feel Me Kessler said, “I wrote this track while stuck in a very liminal period of my life. It’s about the desperate clawing for intimacy, validation and recognition you see in groups of unhappy people.
“I tried to bring out a sense of fatigue and anxiety with the beat and the oppressive bass, to contrast with the gentle vocal delivery. When the drop comes, that’s the break in tension, during which life appears to briefly make sense. But then it’s back to the same old feeling, only you’re not sure whether you mean the words you say or if you’re just saying them out of habit: ‘I’m lonely, so lonely’.”
The track is a change of pace from her previous single – ‘all the swagger and retro feel’ – showing a songwriter unafraid to explore genre, and intimating an EP which will further bring together disparate sounds and techniques. It promises to be quite the trip.
Come Feel Me is out digitally now via Reckless Yes and an EP is due to follow in March.
Find Hannah Rose Kessler: Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Bandcamp | Spotify
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Disclosure: Sarah Lay is editor of Popoptica and co-founder of Reckless Yes, so has some involvement in the release of this record – but she really does only write about or work on music she loves.
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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