Helsinki-based electronic alt-pop artist Conchis composed her second album, Gravity, entirely in her mind during a prolonged period of illness that left her unable to make music in the usual way. Imagining every melody, rhythm, chord, and lyric before eventually bringing the material into the studio, she shaped a record concerned with disrupted expectations, physical limitations, and the possibility of finding a different direction through periods of upheaval.
We featured two of the album’s tracks in the past few months — the expansive, synth-forward “Under Your Feathers” and the brooding electronic alt-pop within “It Will Only Hurt Once” — and the rest of the release continues a knack for riveting songwriting and memorable soundscapes. Opener “Beginnings” is a climactic gem, expanding from an initial dazzling of heavy percussive punches and spacey synth simmering. “Now that my ducks are in a row, ready to march, ready to go,” her vocals resonate, the “but nothing happened for months” follow-up gradually moving into effervescent synth injections and soaring vocal enthrallment. Right away, the album consumes with a heavy-hitter in “Beginnings.”
Highlights are abound throughout, as well. “Easy Easy” starts with a lush spaciousness, with solemn vocals and glimmering synth adornments bolstering a “let it rain” lyrical pull. Buzzy, bass-y tones and a hypnotic vocal refrain follows, aesthetically reminiscent of The Knife’s foreboding, avant-garde art-pop excellence. Elsewhere, “Ether in the Atmosphere” melds pulsing rhythms and shimmering synths with a dreamy vocal demeanor, asking “is it something more that lives beyond our body?” with heady, philosophical insight. Abundant in style and melodic memorability, Gravity is another fantastic full-length from Conchis, who also caught our ears in 2024 with the album Chapters.
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“Beginnings” and other tracks featured this month can be streamed on the updating Obscure Sound’s ‘Emerging Singles’ Spotify playlist.
We discovered this release via MusoSoup.
