A devilish mixture of industrial synth beats and a lurid message play off one another in Silent Girlfriend’s new track, “Chains”, from their recently-released Backstabbing Female Supremacist cassette. What starts out as a dubiously comic recording of a man’s voice, almost indiscernible slurring a flirtatious speech to a woman, abruptly enters into a pounding whirl of bass-like keys atop kick-drum thumps and swirling phasers and other jarring noise effects. The track’s message becomes clear, heavy and unsettling as clips of a news reporter discuss the war on drugs being “waged almost exclusively on poor communities of color,” the title quickly infused with the specific meaning of the debilitating, regressive effects of drugs on minorities and disadvantaged neighborhoods. Ghostly vocals appear in chilling repetition, chanting, “Let the chains go,” coating the already difficult listen with haunting anxiety. It’s maybe not for the faint of heart, and certainly not for those who prefer their heads buried, ignoring the no-end-in-sight complex that is drug trafficking in poor communities.
Backstabbing Female Supremacist is available now on Night People Records. You can stream “Chains” below.
