Optic Sink’s Natalie Hoffmann (NOTS) creates a musical paradox: an endeavor that doesn’t seem to belong to any particular time or place. She constructs with sounds that are synthesized and stripped down, yet bristling with urgency and brutalist emotion. With percussionist Ben Bauermeister(Magic Kids, Toxie, A55 Conducta) by her side, the two set up camp on the post-punk side of the minimal electronic scene.
Today they’ve detailed their debut, S/T album (out October 2 on Goner Records) alongside its lead single and video “Personified”. The track features a Trumptopian critique delivered over instrumentation that sounds like a new wave chase theme. “Personified is a chaotic reflection on the far-reaching shadows of the dystopia we're living in. The contrasting textures in the song underline the tension between human and machine, and where that line is blurred,” Hoffmann describes. Watch here:
Optic Sink defy categories, shape-shifting from cold wave to psychedelia to distorted noise rock. In the process—which frequently occurs in a single song—they claim unchartered territory as they cathartically fragment and reassemble sounds, concepts, and verbal constructs. The conflict they define is life in America in 2020, finding beauty in the journey despite what the final resolution might be.
