On the Dial | Abra
Intern extraordinaire, Regan Detwiler, brings us this week's installment of "On the Dial," featuring ABRA:
Heavy on the synth, with beats that could have been pulled straight from a suburban baby boomer's aerobics video, Abra has been releasing darkwave hip hop for just a few years now, and it's awesome. She produces all her own tracks, and writes lots of her own lyrics. What I love about her aesthetic is its DIY accessibility. In an interview with 3LittleDigs, she talks about the importance of helping herself, of personal agency and not waiting for other people to teach her how to make music. She wanted to start making beats, so she learned how, drawing from her favorite childhood hits as inspiration. In a different interview, she talks about how nerdy she is and how weird it feels to have people, ya know, wanting to take pictures of her and put her in magazines. "I'm not cool," she says.
Abra just recently collaborated with rapper DA$H on "Deja U," where her ethereal vocals make this six-minute track hazey, almost dreamy. "Deja U" might be good music to hang out to, but I have to say I miss Abra's brutally honest lyrics that play a more prominent role in her earlier, dancier stuff, especially off her 2015 studio album, Rose (Awful Records). That album's first track, "Feel," has a line that just kills me every time: All I ever wanted, and all I ever need, is a beat and hum that can make me feel human...
Right now she's playing festival sets and smaller venues worldwide, and it's been two years since her last album release. With "Deja U," it seems like she's still exploring her sound, maybe experimenting with what she'll do next. Ears out for what's to come....
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