We're listening to new or notable music from San Diego musicians: Nomis, Mara Kaye with Clinton Davis, The Inflorescence, composer Wilfrido Terrazas, and an older collaboration from the late Gabe Serbian.
In January, Oceanside hip-hop artist Nomis released"Loss at Sea," an EP that he said chronicled the grief of. The record is mournful, troubled and gorgeous, packaging up a vulnerability that's both intimate and specific — to listen feels like something between powerful empathy and an invasion of a family's pain. There is no flaw to the songwriting.
My favorite is the EP's opener,"," which starts out with a fuzzy recording of a voicemail from a cousin expressing condolences, set to a beautiful, chaotic, fairy-tale-like patchwork of chimes and melodic percussion. It's clear from the gate that this is a song that lands us squarely in the thick of grief. When Nomis begins to rap, we already care. Against a sonic backdrop that's both propulsive and undulating, Nomis' lyrics are poetic and urgent.