Bodywash

Chris Steward and Rosie Long Decter met in college in 2014, but didn’t immediately share a musical language. Chris grew up in London listening to celestial dream pop; Rosie was raised in Toronto on folk and Canadiana. The duo would eventually bond over Alvvays, a dream pop band with a Canadian folk pedigree. Working toward their own blend of airy vocals, intricate guitar work and atmospheric synths, they released their debut EP as Bodywash in 2016, and their first full-length, Comforter, in 2019.

Though touring for Comforter was cut short by COVID-19, Bodywash showcased the album at local and international festivals including South By Southwest, New Colossus, and Sled Island, honing a live show that combines ethereal soundscapes with a thick rhythmic foundation. During this time, Long Decter and Steward also began writing new material that was darker, more experimental, and at the same time more invigorating than the soothing dream pop found on their first record. In 2021 they took these songs into the studio, sharing them with longtime drummer Ryan White and recording and mixing engineer Jace Lasek (Besnard Lakes).

“Kind of Light” provides the first glimpse of this material, announcing the beginning of a new sonic era for the band as well as their partnership with Light Organ Records. A reflection on how to pull back from something broken, the track finds Long Decter expressing both despair and acceptance. “We breathe / and lose it at the same time,” she sings, accompanied by underwater organs and a propulsive kick pattern, which eventually erupts into a high-energy breakbeat. Squealing guitars and throbbing bass synths flesh out the track as it evolves from somber elegy into an electrifying catharsis. The trajectory suggests that in loss there can also be hope and energy, a new shape taking form.