#zhalih

(Zhalih)

(Zhalih)

Zhalih - Bird Body Zhalih - Bird Body Starting my day off with my friend Zhalih_'s newest, Bird Body, one of TWO fabulous EPs released WITHIN TWO DAYS OF EACH OTHER. (when does she sleep?) @Zhalih/Hilahz is currently one of my favorite bands in the universe, with the perfect alchemy of raw folk authenticity, blues + soul, mixed with a cerebral, arty, experimental style in both #songwriting and #production, which speaks to a sprawling world of vivid emotions behind the mother-of-pearl curtain. But she hints, more than shows, and perhaps that's why i can relate. Bird Body is a little rootsier, a little bluesier, a little funkier, and a little more lofi than Secrets, the first i heard, and a little more personal, sketched out and put together than her collaboration with #GaryWiseman. Lyrically, it's got some of the artsy literacy of Aimee Mann while, sonically, Bird Body's in line with the introverted trip-hop soul of Goldfrapp or the skeletal, airy, avant-garde folk of Mount Eerie. Listening to Zhalih is liking stepping into a dim room, slightly set back from the street, maybe with some cracked art installation on the porch. A gauzy crinoline curtain curls like incense smoke in the subdued air, light as cobwebs yet soaking up the sound as thoroughly as any church's velvet vestements. Hushed and holy, it is a place for long looks out of the corner of yr eyes, dropped glances, expressive fingertips. Everything burns & shines, potent, the air rich with mudras and unspilled tears. Its a temple of secrets, blockaded against the sun, where essence sings louder than the crowds. It is a place of stillness, serenity, but the peace can shatter like porcelain, cutting you like a meteor shower.

(Zhalih)

(Zhalih)

(Zhalih)

(Zhalih)

(Zhalih)