COOL-AS Brooklyn imprint Mexican Summer, which has played host to artists such as Oneohtrix Point Never and Best Coast, has been running a lovely diversion from all the nutsness this year entitled Looking Glass, being an ongoing series of digital singles drops from its fine stable; already during 2020 we’ve had selections from Ariel Pink, Connan Mockasin, Katryn Aurelia Smith and others.
The series wends in as we speak, and the latest instalment comes from a singer-songwriter who also hails from the borough, Madison McFerrin, who brings us the smokey noir jazz and vocal flight of “Hindsight” as her contribution. It’s rather fine. The video’s down there.
The creative rubric behind the Looking Glass series is to focus on the human condition as reflected through encounters both happenstance and destined: “a portal for creative exploration and community to resonate through all versions of reality.”
Other artists from the label and close associates who are dropping in the fall instalment include Buffalo’s rootsy Julie Byrne, San Fran sonic adventurer Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, MC Nappy Nina and Toronto indie rockers CMON.
“Hindsight” is also a little taster of what to expect from Madison in 2021, with her full-length debut pencilled in for release.
She says: “’Hindsight’ is a love letter to Bernie Sanders.
“I wrote it in May 2020, filled with anxiety from Covid and the coming election; feeling let down by the Democratic Party, longing for a candidate that believed in climate change, student loan forgiveness and Medicare for All during a global pandemic.
“It’s a song about heartbreak – wishing you could change the past, knowing you have to continue forward regardless.”
It’s also one year on since Madison’s last release, the You + I EP, which wowed the congnoscenti with tracks such as “Try”.
Follow Madison McFerrin on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
