Brighton’s Helen Ganya Brown is out with a new single under her Dog In The Snow moniker. Consume Me, the lead track for her debut LP that drops later this month, is a minimalist vocal-driven emotion-monster. A simple two-chord guitar progression opens the track–think a more serious Experimental Jetset-era Sonic Youth. Brown’s powerful vocals add depth even before being layered over piano sounds in the song’s haunted peak. Like Utada Hikaru, the woman has a ton of soul in her sound, but with a rock emphasis as opposed to Hikaru’s candy pop sensibilities.
The promo material says Brown is inspired by Kafka, Scott Walker (weird reference, but we’ll take it), Susumu Yokota, and her experiences as a mixed race foreigner in the UK (she grew up in Singapore). The inspiration is in the juxtapositions, she says, and the juxtapositions are there in the sound and her lyrics:
On the final breath of the earth of my body, I’ll pass onto you the memory of my face. Have more than you need with the slow suicide, consume me and take in what I held onto.
Along with the studio version, there’s a live version of her track floating around on YouTube. We grabbed it for you here:
