Vein to the chest / Tubes like garden hose / Pumping in the fresh / To the brain-machine. Kim Gordon‘s stream of consciousness floods through human and visceral imagery, and some missing parts (i.e. freedom of speech) on the dub- and trap-crashing “ECRP.”
Released as a single apart from Gordon’s second solo release The Collective—partly inspired by the 2022 Jennifer Egan novel The Candy House—”ECRP” captures the soliloquous flow of lyrics on the album. “Well, I’m not a natural singer,” said Gordon of her vocal approach to the songs. “I know what works for me in the sense of using rhythm and space, and I really do like working off rhythms. I really just wanted to do more of that. I feel much freer in what I’m singing about in a certain way. I don’t feel like I have to hold myself back in some way.”
Accompanying “ECRP” is a video, a mosaic of scenes from New York City streets, art, buildings, and other imagery directed by Gordon’s daughter Coco Gordon Moore.
Videos by American Songwriter
[Get Tickets to Kim Gordon’s The Collective World Tour at StubHub]
Recorded in Los Angeles and following Gordon’s 2019 solo debut, No Home Record, The Collective pieced together using several instrumental tracks sent to Gordon by producer Justin Raisen (John Cale, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Charli XCX). Gordon later filled Raisen’s experimental and noise tracks with distortion, vocals, and a montage of lyrics like cut-up word mantras.
“On this record, I wanted to express the absolute craziness I feel around me right now,” said Gordon of the album. “This is a moment when nobody really knows what truth is, when facts don’t necessarily sway people, when everyone has their own side, creating a general sense of paranoia. To soothe, to dream, escape with drugs, TV shows, shopping, the internet, everything is easy, smooth, convenient, branded. It made me want to disrupt, to follow something unknown, maybe even to fail.”
Gordon recently performed her Collective single “Bye Bye” on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and wrapped up the first part of her North American tour. She kicked off the European leg of her The Collective World Tour in London, England on June 25, which will return to North America, from August 30 through October 4, before returning to Europe and wrapping up in Mexico City on November 17.
Photo: Danielle Neu
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.
