New Track: (Sandy) Alex G Mixes Quaint Folk With Distorted Dread In 'Gretel'
Tristan Young @talltristan
(Sandy) Alex G’s 2017 album Rocket was one of the best surprises of that year. We are pumped as all heck to learn that he is releasing his follow up, House of Sugar in the coming months. The first single ‘Gretel’, is another terrific example of his unique blend of alt folk and darker, menacing pop currents. While much of Alex G’s work are gorgeous stripped down folk ballads, he often injects considerable amounts of anomalous and anxious distortion. ‘Gretel’ follows suit with clashing and rapturous fuzzed out guitar and mangled base. He implements these discordant soundscapes with brazen and claustrophobic fidelity, but cuts it all away just as nonchalantly. What was an unmitigated thrashing of ominous tones flips with remarkable ease into a lovely and reassuring folk rock statement. Alex G becomes calmly persuasive when he sings, “I don’t wanna be this, good people gotta fight to exist”. As he lets the instrumentation take over, the song becomes a gorgeous synthesis of sharply plucked at random guitar strings and opulent, classical string arrangements. Alex G doesn’t want you placated in comfort for too long as the outro once again references the cacophonous miasma of the earlier part of the track. Yet he makes his point, that amidst the demoralizing normalcy of people simply eating each other alive as told by the Hansel & Gretel parable, we can still be surprised by our collective capacity for good. ‘Gretel’ captures that surprise and renders it in stark and reliving terms. It makes it sound not just aspirational, but wholly necessary.