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Feb 18, 2021 By Caleb Campbell

Queens-based indie rock duo Yo Kinky met at the beginning of 2020 quickly striking up a creative partnership. Laura Wight and Tom Unish worked together through the pandemic, self-producing and recording their upcoming debut self-titled EP. The band introduced their hypnotic indie rock style with two early singles, “Someone I Used to Know” and “Resistance.” Laying playful keyboard textures and reverb-soaked guitar lines over drum machine beats, there is an immediate allure to the stark instrumentation. The band have now returned with the final single from the EP, “Wire,” premiering with Under the Radar. “Wire” builds brilliantly from an opening syncopated drum machine to a full blast of instrumentation. As the bare drumbeat is joined by wiry guitar riffs, groovy bass, and finally, a swelling synths, the song subtly shifts, trading in the dark skeletal opening for a dramatic climax. Sharp instrumental hooks layer on top of each other, dropping in and out, all building in tense energy. The instrumentation imitates the drums’ syncopated beat until the final moments as the expansive synths blow the song’s tight rhythms wide open for a climactic final moment. Wight’s vocals have a similar progression, first matching the track’s seductive energy before rising to an earnest full-hearted conclusion. Wight of Yo Kinky shares of the song, “When I wrote this song I was experiencing some intense emotions sparked by a complicated relationship. At the time, I was also listening to the Back from the Grave compilations, so perhaps I picked up some of that garage punk attitude. Once I started working on it, the song just poured out, and I wrote and recorded the demo on my guitar in just a few minutes.” Unish continues, “When Laura played this song she’d recently recorded, I was really into the guitar part and vocal melody. I spent a lot of time reworking her drum tracks until we captured the groovy feel we were looking for. The song then really came together for me when I laid down the bass part and Roland 202. The arrangement pretty much happened during the mixing process, and it was a lot of fun figuring out when instruments would drop in and out. I had a blast mixing this one.” Check out the song below and preorder the Yo Kinky EP here, coming February 26.