Composers and multi-instrumentalists Esther Quansah and Becky Foinchas return with their debut album Dying, an excavation of the ego in 12/8 time. It’s an audio collage, an amalgam of moods, genres, and hysterics that flips formal songwriting structure on its head. The songwriting duo of Foinchas and Quansah has always had a knack for subverting expectations, and this new release bears witness to staggering growth and deliberate abandon. Working closely with producer/engineer Colin Monachs out of GB’s Juke Joint in Long Island City, the pair’s sonic identity has matured, incorporating stately piano and string arrangements into their trademark polyrhythmic brew. This album is about the creative risk and reward of maintaining pure vulnerability while creating. It investigates themes of meditation, esotericism, and surrealism in daily life to address existential questions about the innermost self. Woven within the fibers of the music is a deeply spiritual aesthetic that challenges time and sonic reality through a formless usage of surroundings.
The record was conceived in voice memos, written across oceans, and fleshed out in rehearsals with rhythm section Adam Turay (guitar), Jesse Heasly (bass guitar), and Matt Bent (drum set). Quansah and Foinchas sent updated files back and forth, starting fresh ideas while working out existing ones. As a result, the album has a searching, restless spirit and a consciously fragmented nature, elegantly flitting between styles and moods. It is as much a departure from the more traditional, song-oriented style of the previous EP Mommy Issues as it is the breathless anticipation of something new.
Mommy Issues was recorded in a quarantine fugue state and released in June 2021. It received favorable coverage in outlets like Pitchfork, NPR, and Earmilk, introducing the Narcotix to new audiences while affirming their place in Brooklyn’s thriving DIY and experimental rock scenes. Following the release of Mommy Issues, the band cut their teeth playing numerous shows in NYC, Philly, and upstate New York, sharing the stage with artists as talented and varied as Laraaji, Fievel is Glauque, Flanafi, the Deli Girls, Beshken/Ex-Wiish, St. Mela, Godcaster and countless others.
