Wye Oak was commissioned to write and record a new song as part of Adult Swim’s 2012 Singles Program. For 12 consecutive weeks a new track will debut every Monday through September and will include brand new tracks from Wavves, Flying Lotus, Elite Gymnastics, etc. The song heavily departs from anything Wye Oak has done before- with electronic 80’s beats and the echo of Wassner’s voice, but it’s an interesting and exciting evolution for the Baltimore, MD duo. You can stream “Spiral” below and visit AdultSwim.com/singles to download the song today, July 2. NPR premiered Wye Oak’s “Spiral” with information about the song directly from Wye Oak’s Jess Wassner:
This track was written specifically for this Adult Swim series, but they didn’t provide any thematic or sonic guidance for the song. A lot of the music I had been working on independently at the time sounded something like this — so I felt like the Adult Swim opportunity was, as a standalone track, a great opportunity to experiment with some of these new sonic and rhythmic ideas in a low-pressure context. The song revolves around the idea of repetition and rhythmic interplay — parts that are fairly minimalist and circular that come together to form an almost hypnotic wash. I wrote this song while living at the Soft House (a warehouse space in the Copycat building in Baltimore), and my roommate across the hall, Rod Hamilton, practiced marimba and vibraphone often.
As I was writing the track, it occurred to me that the marimba loops I had heard him practicing were a perfect fit — perhaps they had settled in my unconscious all along? — and we were very grateful that he was willing to contribute to this overall effect. Overall, this song is purposely catchy, but also (to me, at least) dark and menacing. It’s about going around in circles, feeling trapped by the momentum of bad decisions, being funneled into a negative feedback loop until you, like the song, eventually fall apart.
