Partners in crime, Naarm/Melbourne-based artists RINSE (Joe Agius) and Hatchie (Harriette Pilbeam) have just delivered another brilliant dream pop/shoegaze delight in ‘Kiss Me (Kill Me)’ – a track that harks back to their previous brilliant collaboration ‘Back Into Your Arms’ from RINSE’s magnificent EP ‘Wherever I Am’.
As can be expected from these outrageously talented musicians, ‘Kiss Me (Kill Me)’ is a glorious vessel filled with arching melodies and a shimmering haze of guitars and harmonies that spills over into the universe. It’s a bountiful treasure with a thread of melancholia that seeps into the lyrics which reflect the anxiety of love, with all its attendant vulnerability and heartache:
Kiss me, kill me
And maybe I’ll be happier now
Tongue tied when you arrive
But maybe I’ll be happier now
RINSE says:
‘Kiss Me (Kill Me)’ began late last year in a similar premise to ‘Back Into Your Arms’, in that originally it was an idea we were exploring for a Hatchie song that quickly turned into a RINSE one. I guess you could call it a spiritual successor? For me the song treads the line of a relationship that is as much pain as it is passion, and the ecstasy and agony of trying to hold onto fragments of a shattered romance.”
The accompanying video shows the duo cavorting around the streets in a bed on wheels – an endearing portraiture of a goofy couple having as much fun en plein air as they obviously do in the studio:
Pop melodies and sparkling, dense instrumentation combine yet again to prove RINSE and Hatchie – together and apart – are producing some of the best music in Australia at the moment.
Out through Cohort Records, you can download and stream the single here and through the link below.
Feature Photograph: Jordan Hourigan
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