South African transplant Sulene has released her emotional and synth-laden EP Strange, and it is positively haunting, with an '80's sound that tows the line between dark and electro pop. Sulene is widely known as the guitarist for Nate Ruess, but on Strange she is creating new music on her own terms and sharing a wealth of personal experiences with her audience through synth-heavy melodies. The EP was written in hotel rooms and tour buses when she was not residing in Brooklyn, and the EP expresses that transient feeling through each of the three tracks, "What We Had," "Haunting" and title track "Strange."
"What We Had" is a situation familiar to any 20 something city-dwelling girl, where you have something with someone, but often wonder what you really have? Where you think on the things they said long after they've gone, but never really get any answers. Sulene expresses these emotions with a tight beat and bubbly synths that fall over a steady bass line. Second track "Haunting" is more insistent, as Sulene cries out "I've moved on, but you are the ghost," a sentiment to "ghosting" in the modern age. Title track "Strange" starts out with wailing synths and evolves into a chilled-out synthy tune that rounds out the EP as it finds the sunlight.
In Sulene's own words, "The Strange EP was written over the course of the last two years while I was on tour playing guitar for a couple different artists. It really is the culmination of so many stories and bits and pieces of music, I think that's why nostalgia and the idea of first times are so thematic throughout. I've been lucky enough to have some pretty surreal experiences these last few years and I'm so excited I get to remember this chapter in my life, and all the people who came into it, with this little EP I made."
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