#warm human

Ligeti Quartet and Anna Meredith NUC (Mercury KX) Fever Ray Radical Romantics (Mute) Lana Del Ray Do You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd (Polydor) Warm Human Hometown Hero (Bandcamp) Deerhoof Miracle-Level (Joyful Noise) Netherlands Severance (Svart) Mini Mansions Mini Mansions (Ipecac) Flying Lotus You're Dead (Warp) Tim Hecker No Highs (Kranky) Nathan Fake Crystal Vision (Cambria Instruments) Metallica 72 Seasons (Blackened) York Holler Spharen / Der Ewige Tag (Neos) Songhoy Blues Optimisme (Fat Possum)

I love this song. Makes me want to lie on the floor and contemplate without actually thinking while all my organs feel like they’re sinking into my rib cage and I am swimming in failure. Drama queen shit.

Warm Human engulfed us whole last month with the Chicago producer, composer, and lyricist’s “sludge pop” on Down, a dark and haunting ambient pop confessional that habits the space between dusky shuffling Daughter/Ex:Re and string-laced, graceful blustering London Grammar. And now, just a week ahead of her appearance at SXSW, she’s premiered a brand new track off her debut album Ghastly, out this Friday. Meredith Johnston, the musician behind Warm Human, brings us fuzzy droning ambient textures and pneumatic 808′s on ‘Y U’, a dark shuddering, edgy throbbing spell of experimental pop hypnosis. Y U comes with a captivating music video featuring a montage of clips, fittingly shot on iphone 5s considering Y U’s lyrics. While the song’s burbling soundscape feels jittery outlandish, wondering about why someone’s staring at their phone instead of paying attention to you is a familiar situation to many. No one likes to be let down by someone they cared about, but at least we now have this bold punchy tune to lift our spirits and revive or ricochet resilience.

We suggest you take a deep, long breath before you dive into the beautiful void of this next one. It’ll engulf you whole, and you’ll lose yourself in its gentle shuffle and drafty gust. Warm Human, the solo “sludge pop” project of Chicago producer, composer, and lyricist Meredith Johnston, serves up one of the most exquisite songs we’ve heard so far this year in Down. She bridges the space betwixt intimately confessional rock, dusky ambient pop, and sparse haunting dream pop on the song, utilizing fuzzy drones, ambient textures, and pressurized 808′s to accentuate a sense of desperation that oft accompanies being a living, breathing person. It’s a quietly gripping, emotively wringing sound that blends the atmospheric solemnity of acts like Daughter or Ex:Re with the cinematic scope of London Grammar and a sprinkling of Télépopmusik. Warm Human’s debut album Ghastly, which tells deeply personal stories through its melange of synths, vocal processing, and pop arrangements, is set to arrive on March 8th. Lucky for us, Warm Human will be making her way out to SXSW next month, where we hope we’ll get to see her. 

my favourite tracks: Daylight Savings, Make Good, D.O.A.

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Warm Human’s “Gimme a Reason” single is available now on House of Feelings.