New York City multi-hyphenate Eartheater invites listeners into another deeply mystifying listening experience on her sixth studio album Powders, out now via her label Chemical X. She will also be heading out on a U.S. tour in a few months which will feature two nights at the iconic Troubadour on Thursday, December 7th, and Friday, December 8th.
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Morphing between myriad genres with mercurial fluidity and marked by the ethereally crystalline quality of her three-octave vocal range, Powders is a stunning testament to Eartheater’s avant-garde nature as an artist, composer, songwriter, and producer. Nine spellbinding tracks catalyze a cyclical process by which she simultaneously dissolves and materializes everything from enigmatic contortions of dance-pop and trip-hop with colossally textured soundscapes.
Almost immediately you’re enveloped in the rapturous growths of “Sugarcane Switch,” a haunting thrum of bass urging you deeper and closer to Eartheater’s foreboding vocals. But just as they start to fade you’re greeted with a grandiose crescendo of heady beats and glacial synths that surge forward before dropping off suddenly. They return a few verses later ebbing alongside icy cries that carry her searingly sublime lyrics: “The moonlight / Belongs to me / While you sleep in your / Furious dreams / Fire below water / Makes the steam.”
By the time the album’s second song rolls around — coming in the form of the irresistible and enthralling “Crushing” — you find yourself fully encased in the prismatic worlds that Eartheater’s music occupies. Here, classical compositions come to beauteous fruition against the moody saunter of drums. Whining strings pierce the song’s spacious atmosphere as dreamy piano keys lull beside the airy breaths of woodwinds.
With the release of the record comes a music video for the captivating track directed by Andrew Thomas Huang. One that showcases the dark luxuriance of Eartheater’s aesthetic and her vocal prowess — its final scene sees her shattering a piece of glassware with just the high-pitched reverberations of her voice.
Her cover of System Of A Down’s “Chop Suey” transforms the song into its veritable antithesis, matching her murmurs with soft acoustic strums, layering that potent eerieness as it climbs toward a raucous finale. “Mona Lisa Moan” dials up the tempo with shuddering electronica and an elusive sensuality — “Come make Mona Lisa moan” she chants with sultry instruction alongside warped-out synths. With breakneck agility, she oscillates into the grinning ferocity of “Pure Smile Snake Venom,” a track that tantalizingly toys with the thin lines between pain and pleasure.
See Eartheater in Los Angeles when they play two back-to-back nights at the Troubadour on Thursday, December 7th, and Friday, December 8th.
Visit Eartheater on their Bandcamp and Instagram to stay updated on new releases and tour announcements.
Eartheater tour
11/6 – Betonhalle – Berlin, DE
11/7 – Betonhalle – Berlin, DE
11/8 – Vega – Copenhagen, DK
11/10 – MUNCH – Oslo, NO
11/11 – Ääniwalli – Helsinki, FI
11/13 – Village Underground – London, EN
11/15 – Hybrydy – Warsaw, PL
11/18 – Full of Lava Festival – Bern, CH
11/29 – The Sinclair – Boston, MA
12/1 – Elsewhere – Brooklyn, NY
12/2 – Underground Arts – Philadelphia, PA
12/4 – Lincoln Hall – Chicago, IL
12/7 – Troubadour – Los Angeles, CA
12/8 – Troubadour – Los Angeles, CA
12/11 – The Independent – San Francisco, CA
12/15 – Elsewhere – Brooklyn, NY
Words: Steven Ward
Listen to Powders the new album from Eartheater below!
