Mosquito
Model/Actriz
Model/Actriz make music that feels like being too close to something you can't look away from, and this track exemplifies their brand of uncomfortable magnetism. The production on "Mosquito" is tactile and skin-close — guitars that buzz and scrape rather than riff, a rhythm section that lurches with controlled menace, the whole mix feeling slightly overexposed, as if recorded under fluorescent light. Cole Haden's voice is the instrument that holds everything at once together and apart: theatrical, quivering at the edge between seduction and revulsion, capable of dropping from falsetto cry to something guttural with little warning. The mosquito as metaphor is uncommonly apt for the band's aesthetics — something small that gets under your skin, that draws something from you before you've noticed, that you can't ignore once you're aware of it. There's a queerness in the song's energy, a refusal to stabilize its desires, circling around appetite and disgust as if they're the same sensation. The New York underground art-punk scene produced this band as one of its most confrontational recent offerings. You'd listen to this when you want to feel the discomfort of your own wanting.
medium
2020s
abrasive, skin-close, raw
New York City underground art-punk scene
Art-Punk, Post-Punk. Noise art-punk. unsettling, intense. Builds from an uncomfortable, skin-close magnetism toward a queasy apex where appetite and disgust become indistinguishable.. energy 8. medium. danceability 4. valence 3. vocals: theatrical male, falsetto to guttural, quivering, seductive and repulsed simultaneously. production: buzzing scraping guitars, lurching rhythm section, overexposed fluorescent-harsh mix. texture: abrasive, skin-close, raw. acousticness 2. era: 2020s. New York City underground art-punk scene. Alone late at night with headphones when you want to sit inside the discomfort of your own wanting.