Fire Talk is excited to announce the signing & new EP from Cindygod, the project which saw Gauntlet Hair’s Andy Rauworth and Craig Nice reuniting, are announcing their second effort, following their 2018 Demos EP, under the new name with EP2 out August 14th on the label. The lead single “Rhys” takes a darkly sinister route, with Rauworth’s ghostly vocals flickering between Nice’s driving rhythms, culminating in a potent post-punk-meets-new-wave warped reverie. “Rhys” establishes the new direction Cindygod are taking with confoundingly pummeling rhythms cut with oscillating riffs that lend a sonic unease to the lyrical unease at the heart of the first single. Speaking to the song Rauworth says ““Rhys” is about the altered state of consciousness that I was dealing with at the time of writing. It starts with the lyric “shape-shifter he comes - on a bed of nails”. Sort of an introduction to feeling confused and twisted about being unable to escape what was happening at the time.” EP2 is full of familiar yet skewed sonics, simulacrums of dream pop sit atop menacing angular guitars while the occasional yelps from Rauworth agitate between dreamy synths. The sublimely idiosyncratic amalgam of genres on Cindygod’s EP2 points not only to how far the duo have come since disbanding Gauntlet Hair in 2013 but the new EP succinctly soundtracks our ongoing descent into a fully realized dystopia.
SHARE: Cindygod’s "Rhys" on YouTube
In August 2013 after two albums on the Dead Oceans label and what seemed like a never ending touring schedule Gauntlet Hair the Denver, Colorado band from songwriter Andy Rauworth and drummer Craig Nice broke up. What may have seemed like an abrupt ending to a group that was just getting started felt like an inevitable conclusion to Rauworth and Nice. “It wasn’t working for us in a lot of ways, creatively, financially, there were a lot of layers” says Andy.
A few years passed and in time Rauworth began to flesh out a new batch of songs which would later be collected into the Demos EP under a new moniker Cindygod. He enlisted Nice to add drums to the recordings and in a statement to Stereogum Andy said “This EP is a collection of some of the first songs that Craig and I wrote and struggled with after reuniting. They represent a rather dark time for us — an important time of figuring if we could even continue on together. Which is why I find them appropriate for our first release. I do not want to forget what we had to overcome in order to move forward.”
And move forward they did, Andy kept writing and shaping a new batch of recordings which would be compiled into EP2 enlisting Nice once again to layer in drums and percussion. The new songs take a darker & more sinister shape while retaining the hollowed-out saccharine sound of Rauworth’s recent work. Glitchy synths and balmy vocals hint at what the future of Cindygod will likely look like, elements of Dream Pop and Post-Punk melding into a smokey plume. While it’s unclear what Nice’s contributions may be in the future due to his recent move to Chicago and a pandemic looming, Rauworth continues to keep busy tracking the debut Cindygod LP, which will see release sometime in 2021. EP2 is out on Fire Talk August 14th 2020.