053 :: GIVE

"Give-upping" by Disiniblud, from Disiniblud, released by Smugglers Way in 2025. Listen / Buy direct

Transcript

What am I hearing? That is, perhaps, the fundamental question I hope any new piece of music I come across will pose. What I am constantly seeking is music that throws me into a state of bewilderment and also wonder. And this music, in all its shimmering brilliance, is a perfect example: so clearly a thing of beauty, but such a baffling collage, of countless voices layered one on top of the other, chopped, cut short, sometimes glitching out, as the surrounding air buzzes with an anxious rattle and melts into a warm harmony, enveloping itself as it envelops us.

But what really strikes me about this music is its eschewal of form. It's not following any standard structure or compositional pattern. It's more like it's following individual sounds and ideas, seeing where they lead, letting them blossom and multiply, and pulling every other imaginable sound in with them. It's like music is not so much the intention but rather an emergent phenomenon of the controlled chaos these musicians have stirred into existence. And it's remarkable, to encounter music like this. It never seems like it should be possible, and you never know which way it's gonna go. And I know, this is not the first music to ever sound like this. I guess it's what is typically called "post-rock", but even that designation seems too specific. It's more like post-everything, post-post, postcore, post as an aesthetic unto itself. So, of course, this music must push itself to the limit – must nearly rend itself apart – must take in everything in order to show that it can transcend anything, even its own being.

And I still don't know what I'm hearing. Fragments of voices, disappearing before completing their thought. A throbbing bass, pounding like a headache or a heart attack. A keyboard so overdriven that it might be a guitar. Drums whose rhythm is like a perpetual crash. A wall of barely distinguishable sounds. Yet somehow, from this maelstrom, what we hear is music, bursting forth from these millions of sound waves colliding, a new form of energy released out into the world, a little miracle of physics – a bewildering wonder ringing between our ears.

Liner Notes

Disiniblud is a collab between the musicians Rachika Nayar and Nina Keith. "Give-upping" features additional vocals from Julianna Barwick.