Baltimore’s Smoke Bellow descends into a kaleidoscopic rhythm centered on repetition with their new single, “Furry Computer 2.”
Formed by the songwriting duo of Meredith McHugh and Christian Best, the foundation of their new album, aptly titled Open For Business, was created in the hysteria of 2020. McHugh and Best drew inspiration from a variety of artists including Sly and Robbie, The Raincoats, ESG, Yo La Tengo, Philip Glass and more. These textures gave the duo a more dynamic template to work off when they began recording the tracks in a remote cabin in the Smoky Mountains and Tempo House in Baltimore during the height of the pandemic.
On their new single, Smoke Bellow crafts a track that centers on an organ loop with McHugh’s reverberating mechanical vocals and minimalistic drum patterns that hit at just the right moment. There are brief moments of humanistic qualities that breathe through the track when a saxophone rings out towards the end of each verse, as though to snap listeners out of the daze they’ve created. “Hopes inside my levity,” is the refrain that McHugh repeats in the track’s finale before all of her vocal parts are played against each other.
“This all started with the organ loop. We are big fans of Steve Reich, Philip Glass and the like,” writes Smoke Bellow when describing the inspiration behind the track. “We wanted to ride the weird groove forever, and experiment with subtle variations.”
The college of sounds that Smoke Bellow utilizes works in a majestic synchronized motif, as worlds build upon each other.
Open For Business is out September 17 on Trouble In Mind Records