Establishing the mood with an electric guitar riff, expanding into a cerebral and industrial energy, Shortout Kid opens Pet Song with dimensionality and psychedelic, hypnotic vocals. We are immediately enthralled by the grunge-adjacency that fans of Smashing Pumpkins will relate to sonically, and there is no denying that Shortout Kid‘s melodic vibes are reminiscent of Nirvana.
The vivid 90s throwback is welcome. An analogue sound in a digital age that feels warm, fuzzy, and reminiscent of a cinematic era when movies were shot on film and unafraid of intentional depth. That’s exactly what manifests here.
Shortout Kid describes his work as “a product of sheer madness.” We learn that for almost fifteen years the artist has been working in seclusion, forging an instrument “yet unseen by [the] human eye”, with “the fused looks and sounds of an electric guitar and a chainsaw.”
The Dutch artist based in Rotterdam tells us how it took him another three years to learn to play the instrument. This is truly analogue innovation at its finest, and the sonic result is sublime.
Shortout Kid also cites Radiohead, The Prodigy and Underworld as influences for Pet Song. We love the subversive nature of the track, bringing together dark-wave grunge notions and dark-psychedelia with static melodic punctuations and ethereal rock moments.
Speaking on his artistry on a conceptual level, Shortout Kid says, “Take Mozart – and teach him to play a chainsaw. Take Kurt Cobain – and have him get addicted to a sampler. Take the softest sound you can catch from an exploding amplifier, and turn it into a ballad. Take Jimi Hendrix, and have him come up with an instrument to play the noise of a much harsher era.”
Needless to say, we are in awe, and have added Pet Song to our New Music Spotlight playlist, and our TRIPPY playlist, whilst we watch the video and continue to stream Shortout Kid‘s debut single, Tricked Out Brain Glitch (You My Beauty).