“Heartbreak Sounds,” the first track from Deep Meats I — the latest release from Ponybird, a.k.a. Jennifer Dauphinais — starts with a sound that is impossible to identify, buzzy and menacing, slowly unfurling a long, moody melody. Drums and electronic blips then conspire to create a rhythm, a harmonic structure, and Dauphinais steps to the mic, crooning with a sense of louche urgency.
“You used to feel important / And I used to dance all night / You could read with me with a glance / Til we’d stop to fuss and fight,” Dauphanais sings. “There’s what the world feels like to me / And what it feels like to you / And somewhere in between is the mess we got into.”
Deep Meats I is one of several new releases from New Haven-based musicians that keep it moody even as summer set in. In Ponybird’s case, that moodiness also finds Dauphinais at her grooviest and most free. Dauphinais, who wrote, performed, recorded, and produced nearly the entire album herself, explores a wide palette of sounds, mixing electronic, electric, and acoustic sounds together while also deploying a variety of effects on her voice to create a thick, dark atmosphere, whether it’s on the opening track or the swinging “Slow Nelson,” in the cold digital gleam of “Can’t Back Away,” the swirling and anthemic “Better Way,” or the skittering “Brace Yourself/Reckless.” The slow psychedelia of “Barriers and Fragilities” (with an assist from guitarist Andre Roman” brings the whole album home. Throughout, Dauphinais has never sounded more assured, relaxed, and focused at the same time, and if the Roman numeral at the album title’s end is any indication, there is more to come.
A similar sense of cathartic gloom pervades Hella Kafkaesque Vol. 3, a collaboration between Mandy Moorehol and New Haven hip hop stalwart Sketch tha Cataclysm. Moorehol, who wrote the music for the album, creates dense, dark soundscapes out of shambling beats and murmuring voices, an altogether fitting setting for Moorehol’s verses; in them, the MC’s voice is pitched low and drenched in effects, completing the emotion. Moorehol’s voice sinks into the music. By contrast, Sketch’s verses rise above it, skitter through it, punching holes in the dark.
In previous releases of his own, Sketch has leaned into a brighter sound that lets him celebrate the complexity of his rhymes and rhythms, and the sheer velocity with which he can rap. Hella Kafkaesque Vol. 3, by contrast, has him performing in a slower, more relaxed mode, with illuminating results. Sketch can still rock a mic even at lower speeds, and still retains the sharp sense of humor and emotional honesty that made previous releases such successes. Moorehol and Sketch are an inspired pairing; even as the beats turn dark and deep, the music and voices crackle with bristling energy.
Finally, there is Beasts, a new release from the youngest generation of New Haven’s improvisors: Caleb Duval, Kaelen Ghandhi, Luke Rovinsky, Jeff Dragan, and Ben Eidson. While Ghandi, Duval, and Rovinsky bring saxophones, bass, and guitar to the party, Dragan and Eidson deploy electronics, with chaotic, frightening, and sometimes humorous results. Even for a project with no drums, there is a sense of an insistent pulse, pulling the musicians through track after squalling track. As the album goes on, the musicians’ sounds begin to blend. Is that a reed instrument or a shorting cable? An electric guitar or a wall of static? The disorientation is all part of it, performed with a kind of winking seriousness, even as all the musical jokes have barbs attached.
The three albums all share a sense of gritty adventurousness, the work of artists who have found new directions to explore and are running as fast as they can to see how far they can go. Maybe at first listen they seem at odds with the season. After all, the summer promises heat and relaxation, hours in the sun, peace after a long winter.
Or does it?
