Sophia Kennedy’s music sometimes sounds like a soundtrack to a world to disintegrating, hanging on by a thread of memories, it combines the glamour and the morbid charm of tin pan alley show tunes from the 1960s or ’70s, and yet it fully embraces the deconstructed modernism of club music. Her sophomore album Monsters, to be released May 7th on City Slang, is full of plot twists, moments of prettiness dashed with paranoia. The title itself is a self-ironic, comic-like commentary of being an artist trying to tame their own creations like “monsters” gone wild but also a nod to a generally threatening tension in the world. Monsters is pop music teetering on the verge of ruin but it’s not a eulogy, it’s a Tear Down Party!

Obsessed with the work of John Cassavetes and ‘70s horror films like Carrie, Kennedy moved to Hamburg to study film and ended up making music for theatre productions. Her involvement in the local creative community-led her through the doors of the “Golden Pudel”, a techno nightclub on the grounds of a former smugglers’ prison near the Norderelbe river. Immersed in Hamburg’s dance music scene and a regular at the “Pudel”, she met Mense Reents, a musician best known for his work with the celebrated house act, Die Vögel. The pair formed a writing and production partnership and would make Sophia’s eponymously-titled debut record together in 2017 and continue to work together.

TRACKLIST:
Mark Hollander – Where is Mark?

Mount Kombie feat. James Blake – We Go Home Together

Farhot – Azadi

The Singers Unlimited – Autumn In New York

Hypnotic Brass Ensemble – Morning Prayer

Yves Tumor – Feeling When You Walk Away

Blossom Dearie – Try Your Wings

Black Midi – Despair

Mal Waldron, Eric Dolphy, Bucher Ervin – Warm Canto

Snoodle – Rainworms

Farhot – Bale Bale

Low – Disarray

Jonathan Bree – Weird Hardcore (Edit)

Konrad Sprenger – Alle Dinge Eine Weile

Kim Gordon – Sketch Artist

Tyler, The Creator – Ocra

International Music – Verpiss Dich

Arlo Parks – London Poem

Pose Dia – Scanner

Art Feynman – Slow Down

Solange – Jarrod

The Black Dog – Chesh

Devendra Banhart – Oktober 12

Caetano Veloso – Nine Out Of Ten

Die Vögel – Mesmerize

The Beatles – Julia