URQ
“Another Mystery”
Consider this the official “you might consider this biased, but I’d be lying to myself if I didn’t include it warning.” If that bugs you, don’t read it, just listen for yourself.
While best known as one half of Louisiana’s finest art punk duo, SPLLIT, Urq has been quietly amassing himself an impressive collection of oddball solo records for the better part of the past decade. Recording from a place of joyous experimentation and artistic curiosity, there’s a real carefree innocence to the music as it bounces from one bugged out alien landscape to the next with a reverence for the intricate and irreverent. Urq’s upcoming album This Dismal Village retains the project’s lo-fi charms, recorded in full to a 4-track Portastudio over an intensive month while thematically seeping into ambitious conceptual waters. The tale of the titular village and its inhabitants warps old school prog, modern art rock, 90’s tinged indie, and hazy screwball punk together with unpredictable results, each track building upon the brilliant narrative. “Another Mystery,” the record’s lead single, opens the story with scrambled egg punk dexterity, rattling our senses with cartoonish glee that pairs together with a mellow melodic core as it introduces our first look into the village and it’s ominous underbelly. – DG