After dropping their single 'Multitude' earlier this year, their first release in half-a-decade, Melbourne-based BB Sabina return with another genre-defying song, 'Beyond'.
Atmospheric, slow-building drum fills and a distorted, fuzzy guitar line swirl together, layering cinematic post-rock flourishes that weave intensely together.The ethereal yet gothic, ardent vocals simmer with an angelic fever, drawing you in to the potency of the lyrics, as lead singer Beth Uhe explores themes of creative exploration and personal transformation born from an experience of living alone and the associated freedom.
The song's slow tension meanders at first, steadily building to a crescendo of noise-art-rock that cracks and smoulders, the track releasing into shoegazey elements, the bruised tones continuing to churn, a seething rage oozing through quelled only by Beth's siren-like voice.
The band's sound is reminiscent of Sonic Youth, The Jesus and Mary Chain and PJ Harvey. "'Beyond' is about transcendence. Going beyond the mundane of everyday and experiencing an emotional shift," Beth says.
Ahead of the song's release on Friday (13 June), today scenestr is stoked to premiere 'Beyond'. Enjoy.
"I wrote 'Beyond' when I moved into a unit, living by myself for the first time," Beth says, adding context to the song's creation. "It gave me this real sense of freedom.
"It was a sanctuary where I could explore creatively, process the past and step into the unknown. The verse talks about this – a place to. . . 'explore dark edges, step into the void'.
"The song really clicked for me when I found the right fuzzy, reverby, distorted guitar sound, and brought this to the band who knew straight away what I was going for – and they came up with bass and drum parts that fit really fast.
"The main sound influence for 'Beyond' is Sonic Youth (particularly the 'Evol' album); there is also a bit of Jesus and Mary Chain 'Just Like Honey' and old PJ Harvey in there."
Originally the solo vehicle of Beth, who started BB Sabina in the Northern Territory, recording her debut EP in Mparntwe/ Alice Springs and releasing it in 2019 while living there, she moved to Melbourne in 2020.
With a purpose to experiment with new sounds and textures, Beth recruited bassist Warrick Newman and drummer Travis Germaine, the trio becoming a tight unit – both as a band and as friends – as they kept busy writing, recording and gigging around Naarm.
'Beyond' was recorded between Kakadu Studios and Warrick's home studio, with production handled internally with engineering led by Warrick, with support from Sean Hutton. The track was mixed by Aden Senycia at Love Shack Studios and mastered by Joe Carra at Crystal Mastering.
"'Beyond' has a lot of textures that unfold over the song," Warrick says. "I had the idea to double the bass part with piano, but make it really warped and loose. I'm not much of a piano player, which actually worked really well!
"When we recorded the ending section I kind of mashed all the keys together and hit a bunch of wrong notes – which got Beth and Trav laughing – luckily you can't hear it on the track! Beth came up with and played the piano part in the pre-chorus, she's actually decent which brings it all together."
BB Sabina (solo mode) supports Clap Hands at The Tote (Melbourne) on 14 June. The band host the official single launch at The Beast (Melbourne) on 27 June with support from Pretty In Pink and Billy Cart.
