LA’s latest, The Sophs, take their first breath as they release their debut single, ‘SWEAT’, via Rough Trade Records.
Languid and wrapped in a kind of studied indifference, ‘SWEAT’ holds you at arm’s length. The drums, keyboard, and guitar all keep their heads down, holding a repetitive groove, while the bassline moves in tight circles, pumping steady eighth notes and flickering off into small runs. The vocals barely touch the words, delivered with the kind of disinterest that only draws you in further.
Beneath that apathy and blasé charm, there’s a coil wound tight. That tension beads in the quiet spaces, and underneath that: grief. The song resists its release for as long as it can, but by the final chorus, the mask slips. Whilst everything else holds its own, the electric guitar, once content to shimmer at the edges, starts to snarl with static and feedback, and the vocals crack open, breathless and distorted. ‘SWEAT’ pretends not to care. But inevitably, it admits it does.
As frontman Ethan Ramon puts it, ‘SWEAT’ is an attempt “to overcompensate in the face of grief, one that fails miserably and ends with you being swallowed whole. I tried to capture the moment when the tension breaks and you realize you’re no longer in control of your emotions; your emotions are in control of you. That realization is humbling.”
With a debut that moves between composure and sudden collapse, The Sophs sidestep the usual LA indie gloss. No neon, no posturing. Just a lean groove, a voice on the verge, and the kind of heat that creeps up on you.
Photo by Eric Daniels
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