Eilis Frawley – Calm Down (Sinnbus Records)
With her second full length album due for release later this year Berlin-based percussionist Eilis Frawley has shared another single Calm Down, post-punk experimental pop elegance on fighting back in the war for your attention
Artist: Eilis Frawley
Track: Calm Down
Label: Sinnbus Records
Release date: 4 September 2026
Find it: Bandcamp
Berlin-based drummer and percussionist Eilis Frawley has today released single Calm Down, questioning the tailoring of truth and the curation of information stealing our attention, our sovereignty, and minds.
It’s Frawley at her best: confronting but rarely confrontational spoken word which grab you as the complex rhythms punctuate the truths. With that unmistakable style there is a sense of the music lighting up the darkness we face individually and as a society, giving at least a sliver of hope and a bigger dose of solidarity.
Here the sparse Kraut-like rhythms of releases (read our review of EP Adult Life) build into complex percussive structures and pick up the layered vocals and softer, almost orchestral melodies which started to get introduced on 2025 debut album Fall Forward. As ever Frawley is creating art as an exploration of instruments and sound, while also acting as a mirror with the themes covered.
Of Calm Down‘s central themes Frawley said, “We’re surrounded by news, strong opinions, notifications, and algorithms, all tailored to our individual interests and needs. But is the truth being tailored too? Is information subjective? Who gets our attention? Who’s shaping what we see? Are we choosing what we believe, or just being very fed what to believe? When everything is demanding our attention, maybe the best thing we can do is nothing at all. In a world where everything competes for our attention, sometimes the most radical thing you can do is simply calm down.”
‘Everyone is talking / no-one is saying what they mean / tell me / what should I believe?’
The single follows on from Guilt, released in August. While the predecessor had more furious beats, and sharper edges, the theme of perception, self-protection, avoiding the mental and moral overwhelm of social media while surviving late stage capitalism plays through.
An incredible and interesting artist, who with Calm Down again reflects Frawley as outsider (an Australian living first in Seoul, then in Berlin) but also an astute observer, seamlessly bringing together the beauty and unease, the convenience and the curse, of modern life. Intellectual, exploratory, experimental and determined to dispel illusion while building hypnotic worlds of her own. There are few around making music which is as deep and also catchy as this.
We can’t wait for the second album, teased as being due later this year.
Calm Down by Eilis Frawley is out digitally now via Sinnbus Records. Her second album is due for release in late 2026.
Live dates:
- 2 October – The Finsbury Park Picturehouse, London
- 3 October – Loud Women Fest, Newport
- 4 October – The Puzzle Hall Inn, Sowerby Bridge
- 5 October – The Peer Hat, Manchester
- 6 October – The Brunswick, Brighton
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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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