LA-based ambient pop/shoegaze Douglas, announces debut album and releases enthralling lead single, "Cigarettes".
Experimental pop/shoegaze project from the LA-based (by way of Madrid) artist, Amy Douglas White has announced the release of her debut album Ashes (out April 2nd via Gentle Beast Productions) along with sharing “Cigarettes," its enthralling first single that’s imbued with a powerful cinematic synth-pop undercurrent that runs throughout the album.
The single is anchored by a pulsing Moog Prodigy synth refrain and an empowering chorus; the song depicts a woman grappling with a crumbling relationship and finally realizing that her happiness lies in her freedom. It features a dreamy shoegaze guitar riff courtesy of Jonathan Bates (Big Black Delta), a driving bassline from Justin Meldal-Johnsen (NIN, Beck) and unrelenting drums by Kris Persson.
While Ashes is her proper debut album, White is a veteran singer, songwriter and musician, previously best known for contributing background vocals on M83's seminal album Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming, and performing alongside Mariqueen Maandig Reznor in the acclaimed LA band,
West Indian Girl. Raised by American parents in Spain, Amy Douglas White, always felt a little caught between worlds. Written and produced by White, Ashes exudes complexity and cultural fluidity. As a songwriter, Douglas flits between English and Spanish, and traverses the vast space between grief and hope, often within the realm of a single song. Dense with pulsing rhythms and celestial layers of vocals, Douglas’s ambient pop is a hybrid of genres, rooted in melodic hooks, and yet rich with abstraction.
Brimming with emotionally explosive, cinematic vignettes, Ashes melds together sadness and joy through ethereal electronica, with Douglas’ own versatile and expressive vocals always a throughline. Drawing inspiration from artists all over the spectrum, from the German downtempo composer Ulrich Schnauss to the enigmatic dubstep of Burial, and the blaring techno she heard in nightclubs while growing up in Spain, Ashes is an amalgamation of sound distinctly its own.
Pre-order here