Grizelda Pughe’s new EP “Chuck’s Wheel” is a bold, dark and creatively rich project that doesn’t sound like anything else out right now. If you’re into music that pushes boundaries, has personality and isn’t afraid to get a little weird, then this one is definitely for you.
The EP kicks off with the title track, which immediately sets a heavy and haunting tone. It’s slow, moody, and full of unique sounds that grab your attention right away. The atmosphere feels a little unsettling in a good way. It’s clear from the start that this isn’t just another average alt-electronic record.
Then you get to “The Party” and the energy totally changes. This track is more powerful and punchy with a really catchy hook and exciting and varied instrumentation. The shift in mood between songs is something that happens across the entire six-track project, and it keeps things interesting all the way through.
One of the biggest strengths of this EP is how well the production matches the tone of each song. The instrumentals are strong and detailed and they support the dark and theatrical vibe perfectly. The sound is clean but still feels raw and emotional. You can tell that a lot of care went into building the textures of each track.
Grizelda’s vocals are full of character and feel completely at home in this soundscape. The delivery is theatrical without being over-the-top and it adds to the strange and dark energy of the music. There’s a real sense of commitment to the art here, from the sound to the performance to the overall concept behind it.
Every track brings something new and that’s what makes the EP such an engaging listen. It’s not just one mood or style repeated over and over, it shifts, surprises and keeps you locked in from beginning to end. So If you’re looking for something off the beaten path, give this EP a spin. It might just pull you into its strange little world and keep you there on repeat.
ABOUT THE ARTIST:
A fusion of poetry, sound and song with themes of the subconscious and it’s relationship to the flow of time and material reality. Grizelda Pughe sounds a bit like Aphex Twin being attacked by a cyborg Tom Waits on the set of Blade Runner. It is inspired by a love of fragments both musical and otherwise of the kind that makes up the music of Frank Zappa (think a grimy Civilization Phaze III). The current crop of Grizelda Pughe music came in the light of listening to FKA Twigs ‘Magdalene’ which presented a new idiom, a fusing of the dark and disjointed musical space with the transcendent and sublime. Expect the unexpected be it broken orchestras, deep bass, vaudeville or crushing beats. Grizelda its self is a one man project brought into being by self styled composer/ producer Ben Singleton. It came after many years of toiling at the musical and creative grind stone looking for a direction that bridges the gap of the inner world of imagined music with a manifest physical reality. Ben is a multi instrumentalist and curator of the absurd and believes Grizelda happened to him as much as he created it. He describes performing the songs as a possession either by a subconscious voice or some external entity. Avoiding the words ‘genre defying’ Grizelda Pughe is somewhere between an industrial electronic vibe and alternative music spreading out an eclectic web onto anything musical.
