New Music: Bella Baxter – A Gospel of Saliva

There’s something very ‘Berlin’ about A Gospel of Saliva, and that’s not just because it’s the operating base of Bella Baxter, who formed in 2019.

Helmed by Jorge Hernández, who is accompanied by Lucie Nana and Kim Kong, Bella Baxter’s A Gospel of Saliva is brewed from that unique cross-fertilisation of post-punk, electronica, and cross-cultural noirish sensibilities that typify the city.

There is a certain degree of flirtation with 90s trip-hop, the phrasing sometimes reminiscent of Portishead yet less formal and studied. It has a poise about it and is also overtly primal, digging under surface emotions to find the sensuality and darkness that drive them.   

It features on the band’s sixth album, Ofrenda: Poems of Devotion & Resistance, which was released on the 4th of August and is streaming on Bandcamp and Spotify.

The band has made a series of videos about their personal favourites from the album, which you can watch on Instagram and Facebook.

Header photo by Maren Michaelis