by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)
Nate Terepka, best known for his time spent playing in Brooklyn psych pop band Zula, has been developing his own take on avant-garde pop for over a decade. Five years after that dissolution of his band and a move to Portland, he’s back in the swing of things, set to release Not Yet, a new solo album that captures the prismatic nature of his songs as they reflect joy and anguish in equal measure. Due out July 19th, the record maps the unexpected end of a long term relationship, from the days of seemingly endless love to the finality of saying goodbye, with all the heartbreak that comes in between. Not Yet details a tough time in Terepka’s life, but you’d hardly know it, the music serving as the glue that’s keeping him together.
“Silence,” the album’s lead single takes a delightfully detached approach to pop, the song’s kaleidoscopic melody refracting as it glides against a expansive rhythmic groove. It’s a song that feels permanently off axis by design, the breezy nature and gentle sensibility blanketing what is otherwise a complex and intricate shifting structure. On a song that seems to detail the fight to keep fleeting love alive, there’s a subtly to it, highlighted in Terepka’s soft croon, a balancing act to the song’s art pop dexterity. Featuring Henry Terepka (Zula, Henry Grant) on guitar and Booker Stardrum (NNA Tapes, Cloud Becomes Your Hand) on drums and percussion, there’s support in old friends and family, the trio bringing “Silence” to life with a shroud of disorientation and a layered melodic hooks at every turn.