In Anastasia Coope‘s world, there is little difference between a confrontation and a welcoming gesture. Listening to her music, one is struck by her gift for vocal harmony and rich personal vision that borrows as much from the light and color of painting as it does from experimental music. The release of Darning Woman in 2024 saw critical acclaim and international success as she pushed the idiom of folk music to its limits. After the album’s tour, she founded Bonzo Records, a new independent label where she intensified the exploration of her musical and artistic practice.
Coope has now responded to the success of Darning Woman by enclosing the space around her voice and casting aside the baggage of her folk forebears. On DOT, her first EP on Bonzo, Coope extends a generous invitation into her inner life, and inside a new musical language built from the gorgeous and the mundane, an everyday sublime. The result is a beauty that is light on its feet and almost abrasive in its clarity, avant-garde and as easy as turning on the radio: What’s that song…?
Dizzy Magic is Sophie Weil’s fourth LP as Syko Friend, the solo guise that’s codified her output through a decade-plus of operations in the latter-day USA underground—itself a classification so vague and genre- blurred that it’d be almost meaningless if not for the way Weil’s project has done continuous honor to certain clarifying commitments: guitars and amps, feedback and lyrics, free composition and locked-in songcraft. In its twin entanglements with tradition and experimentation, its richly organic sonic palette, and its effortless intimacy, the music of Syko Friend is instantly recognizable. Put one of her records on and you get it.
Imagine a circuit. A closed shape, carved pathway across components and obstacles, this signal yielding a set of tones, new sounds and subtle interactions, noisy strings and hard-panned vocals holding solid before whoosh—something changes. A low note lifts and glides away. Just that quick, you are inside a song.
Local support from The Velvet Pouch.
ALWAYS ALL AGES
