A deluxe version of Eartheater's fourth album, drawing classic neo-shoegaze vocals over pliable bumps from NYC mainstays like Acemo, Color Plus and Tony Seltzer, and now extended with remixes from Doss, COUCOU CHLOE, Sammy, Hara Kiri, LCY, The Dillinger Escape Plan++
Since her Hausu Mountain debut "Metalepsis" in 2015, Alexandra Drewchin has been able to link two seemingly polar worlds, the art-adjacent dance music scene that's been thriving for the last decade in Brooklyn, and a sort of feral dreampop that's lodged between Cocteau Twins, Grimes and Aïsha Devi. Released in 2019 as the world languished in quarantine, "Trinity" was Drewchin's most forceful nod towards nascent club sounds, and has ended up being her most prophetic.
Assembling a cast of Brooklyn's most effervescent producers and a few outliers, she came up with a sound that wasn't quite fully in one world or the other - a dance album that never shied from her ethereal pop formula, and a pop album that wasn't afraid of the club's darkest corners. Listening a few years later, it's actually interesting to see how far her influence have seeped into the cultural wellspring; at the time, Drewchin's fusion had obvious nodal links, but now it's out in the open, folded into the global pop canon to the point where it almost feels nostalgic.
Few artists have managed to get the alchemical blend this spot on. From the opening moments of 'Prodigal Self', the first of three tracks produced by prolific Brooklyn mainstay Acemo, it's quite clear her vision is not only unidirectional, but complete. Her vaporous, dreamy vocals have rarely sounded better than they do here, with rolling subs balancing out the blanket of high end harmonics she controls so effortlessly. But it's 'Supersoaker' that still sticks out head and shoulders above the rest, with a double-time kick that suggests the industrial roll of NYC's UNTER, but doesn't seek to Xerox it. Acemo keeps one foot in and one foot out, using spiky synth arpeggios alongside the thudding kicks, and Drewchin lavishes some of her most memorable coos over the top. It's music that pulses with energy, but doesn't sacrifice emotion - she sounds energetic and narcoleptic, erupting into fractal self-harmonizing bliss and riding the wave into calmer waters.
Tony Stelzer and London's Kwes Darko space out clouded trap on 'Spill the Milk', finding a slo-mo creative groove that's between Purity Ring and Main Attrakionz, and Drewchin takes the bait, breezing thru some of her most spine-tingling harmonic breaths. 'Lick My Tears' mutates into near-drill, grounded again by Drewchin's reverb-heavy voice, while the Color Plus-produced 'Preservation' almost turns up fully, pulling back at the last moment and letting wonky synths vibrate alongside Drewchin's extended words. Her absorption of familiar (and popular) tropes is something many artists attempt and too many fail to control; quite how she manages it is remarkable, as so many more recognizable artists have tried and failed. Just listen to 'Fontanel, and it all becomes clear - on some level she's singing church music, belting out affecting spiritual songs that share artistic DNA with Lingua Ignota, but by fusing them with trap and techno, she extends her reach. It's quite the feat.
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