New York-based label Terrible Records have released music by an impressive collection of artists we love, from Solange and Blood Orange to Moses Sumney and Empress Of. Often, they spot talent early, and today we have the debut track from Rahm.
Rahm is also part of his band altopalo, but this first song under his new moniker might be his most arresting work yet. The sparse, tense production ebbs and flows beneath pained vocals, and it feels as if we're being granted an intimate window into the artist's soul. It's powerful, left-field pop music, and we're looking forward to seeing what else Rahm and Terrible Records can do together.
Listen to "Wet Words" and read a rather strange email interview with Rahm below.
When did you start making music and what inspired you?
I don't make music. I do phonometrics. It's emotional line-tracing really. No more inspiration required than the inspiration it takes to finish a connect-the-dots.
Your press release name checks a lot of girls who you've fallen in love with—is that what all your music is about?
I phonometrize about a lot of things. And those things are usually about other things that are about other things that are fundamentally about love deep down sure.
How did you link up with Terrible Records for this release?
A terrible individual first heard my band altopalo. Then after hearing my solo phonos, Ethan Silverman (AKA The Nasty Paddle) challenged me to a ping pong match at Fat Cat and I (previously known as The Prodigious Pong) was so humiliatingly destroyed that I was then legally bound to release music on his label. Never even signed anything.
When did you move to Brooklyn and how does New York effect or impact your music?
I've been gentrifying Brooklyn for three happy years now. There's a palpable squashed quality to the oversized apple that just comes from trying to fit too many people into one geographical tupperware container. The whole thing's hot and pressurized and the lid's gonna pop off any second no doubt. I have that feeling in my brain sometimes too, and it comes out in my phonos.
What else can we look forward to from Rahm in 2016 and next year?
I'll be doing a lot of schmoozing with music industry big wigs and attending various galas and then I imagine if everything goes well spiraling gradually into a period of deep sadness that naturally succeeds having one's long-held dreams of acclaimed musicianship and reciprocated childhood love come true and not having anything else to look forward to, especially now that you're an adult you only get Kohl's on-sale clothing for your birthday.
(Between galas I'll also be making gems with my beloved band altopalo and rapper buddy J Walrus (Walrus), followed by another Rahm release of possibly greater depth and/or sadness.)
