Iffin is the solo project of Mira Tsarina, who formerly fronted the excellent Montreal math rock outfit Boy Friends. Now based in Seattle, Tsarina records what she describes as “brittle pop,” a label that well describes her latest single “conscience + necrosis.” Released on her birthday, “conscience + necrosis” sounds as though it could crumble to bits at any moment, with clattering, clambering guitar strums loosely wrapping around a strolling bass line, adorned with intermittent tambourine hits. There’s some degree of abstraction to the lyrics, but it’s easy to find one’s mind clinging to the line “I’ve alighted myself / Like some stairs,” likely referring to a comedown from a previously held self-perception of Tsarina’s. Elsewhere, vivid imagery such as “Pissing into a puddle / The seeds soak through the stationary plane” aids in painting a messy portrait that matches the ramshackle nature of the tune. Perhaps a commentary on the futility of trying grow something (or yourself) in a soil that is itself stagnant. Iffin so far seems a humbler project than Boy Friends, though comparably compelling in its own right.
Iffin’s “conscience + necrosis” is available for purchase on Bandcamp.
Written by Travis Shosa.