“you said ‘i had a shrink’ / and i got defensive / the news came on and everyone else went silent.
a lucky man who made the grade / shot his head in the passenger seat of his car / and though the crowd was turned away / the air was thick enough to feel the weight.”
- djuno “Ant Bites”
A reconsideration of the best of influences like Hovvdy, early Alex G, Elliot Smith, and Flatsound, Boa Constrictor by djuno is a slowcore and bedroom-indie twinged heavy hitter for the heart. Written and recorded by a Philippines-based solo artist who will remain anonymous under the pseudonym ‘Bea’ in only two weeks, Boa Constrictor is a sincerely impressive achievement for this young artist.
I had the pleasure of briefly conversing with Bea to discuss the process and background of this release. He informed me that Boa Constrictor was not intended for a public audience, and that he was warmly surprised at the attention the album is getting. This 11-song LP was actually recorded for the listening enjoyment of Bea’s close circle of friends. As they said “it was never intended for more than 5 people to hear.” This makes a lot of sense, once you hear the heartfelt and intimate sides of the album. Additionally, this album was recorded in two weeks with very limited resources, relying on spontaneity, a close-cropped photographic capture, creating a window into the lived experiential moment in time surrounding the release. The leading single, ‘An Angel is Yawning’ stands out in the album, and this too is explained by Bea. He told me that An Angel is Yawning is the only track written prior to the two week window they had given themselves for this release. There is an original demo of An Angel is Yawning available on bandcamp.
A processional, slightly jangly chord progression leads the track An Angel is Yawning towards a very uniquely toned walking bass-line. I think that djuno shares my appreciation for a reorientation of modern slowcore mixes towards a focus on the low-end. The vocals are properly close mic’d with a stereo whisper. Bea pulls a fast one here, creating what I sincerely believed to be a femme / masc duet-style vocal performance. However, I was apprised of the fact that this is instead a seamless solo performance that was manipulated in djuno’s DAW to be a call and response between what I suspect (or project) might be two-halves of Bea’s inner self. The lyrics of the chorus are worth placing here:
“thinking an angel is yawning
i woke up alarmed to the sound of your voice
explicitly patient and waning
i don’t know why, just know it wasn’t my choice”
My other choice cut from this release is the song ‘Ant Bites,’ the lyrics of which I highlighted at the top of the review for their cutting poignance. This song has a dusty little drum machine barking away behind an overdriven and simple sequenced bass line. This track has an alternate title, “(Skin Cancer or) Ant Bites,” which I found enlightening as to the mental state and setting that this album was crafted in. One of my favorite and most overlooked bedroom-slowcore songs is Flatsound’s ‘I Lost Control.’ It is hard to find other songs that meet the holy trinity of restrained vocals in a tape-hiss coated atmosphere, drum machine and overdriven bass backline, and the most intense, personally-grief based, existentialist style lyrics.
I promise you, Ant Bites hits all these markers, with the softness requisite for the song to fit djuno’s preference for slipping the hard edged emotions driving the songs under a cover of bleary-eyed, yet energetic slowcore.
Written by Pleasure Tapes
