Song of the Day: Briana Marela - Quit

Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part of our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJ’s think you should hear. Today’s song, featured on the Midday Show with Cheryl Waters, is "Quit" by Seattle electronic artist Briana Marela from her upcoming album, Call It Love, out August 4th on Jagjaguwar.

Briana Marela - Quit (MP3)Listening to Briana Marela's music can feel like lush escapism. Every track feels like expert world-building, creating wondrous and intricate layers of synthesizers and vocals that are easy to get lost in. With Call It Love, she's putting those skills to a worthy topic: love. With how dreamy her music is already, it may feel like a natural subject for her to cover. But as always with her music, she opts to find a new address the concept – approaching it from all angels and evoking the complex facets that come with the feelings, which anyone who's gone through heartbreak will tell you aren't always "warm and fuzzy."

"Quit" highlights some of Marela's strongest abilities as a songwriter; experimenting with her voice as an ever-changing instrument and vivid production that veers between spacious and anthemic. The way she layers her vocals within the opening bars shows just how apt she is at contorting her own voice. Stuttering vocal samples chime beneath distant wails. When she finally comes in with the lead melody, she's filtered through reverb and autotune that reflects the distance felt in her lyrics. It's tasteful, powerful, and evocative. The booming bass tones emphasize her distraught feelings, letting the drums slip into the background and having the synthesizer bellows hold up the rhythm until a thunderous explosion near the end of the track.

Briana Marela will be playing in Olympia on July 12th at the Obsidian, opening for The Washboard Abs and 100 Watt Horse. There's no Seattle date listed yet, but it's only a matter of time. For now, you can find more info on Marela and other upcoming shows on her website and Facebook page, and revisit her last visit to KEXP below.