Madge - Ethanol
MADGE DROPS INNOVATIVE ‘ETHANOL’
Innovative experimental-pop artist Madge just dropped a new track, entitled “Ethanol,” via 22TWENTY.
Madge | Photo: Amina Gingold
Speaking about the song, Madge says, “Inherited trauma as compulsive self-destruction. For every garbage fire I put out in my brain, I find myself dumping gasoline on another. I find myself wondering if I just accept this state of things. I created this song with Lecx Stacy who brought in the grit and grime to my vision. Mixed and mastered by Chance Lewis.”
According to the press release, “Madge is a production project making tracks that respond to personal and societal disorder. Acute awareness of the eternal internal push-pull between multiple personalities resulting in a fractured sense of 'self' that insists on causing chaos in the physical world.”
Madge’s previous releases include “Headshot” and “Cry a Lil,” along with an EP, Fight or Flight Club, released in 2018.
"I’m all of them and none of them. They are my demons."
Originally from tradition-bound Utah, where she grew up in the Mormon Church, Madge’s persona-laced cosmos finds expression through a variety of personae, including Old Madge, The Girl and Alice, and Red James.
Madge told Kayleigh Watson of The Line of Best Fit, "I feel like I have all these competing personalities in my head and they’re all screaming 'look at me,'" explains Madge. "Sometimes it’s hard for me to find my artistic voice because of them. So I decided to write a song from the perspective of all of them - if you listen closely you can hear each one. I’m all of them and none of them. They are my demons."
“Ethanol” opens on oozing, oscillating synth tones topped by Madge’s eerie, ghostly voice, ranging from pubescent timbres to whispered, shushing textures. The melody fuses elements of art-pop, hip-hop, and electro-pop into swirling tribal savors chock-full of hefty syncopated rhythmic pulses, as sparkling accents and chiming hues travel overhead, infusing the tune with surging, mysterious flavors.
As the harmonics gather resonance and momentum, stuttering synths and gleaming colors coalesce into a strident wall-of-sound effect.
With “Ethanol,” Madge takes the creative impulses of Billie Eilish and expands them into cool, aggressive edginess, producing superbly infectious music.
