New Music: Dis Fig – The Snake You Built

Since debuting in 2018 with the thirteen-minute-long movement Excerpt From An Atypical Brain Damage, Dis Fig has been experimental and accessible.

The Snake You Built is from Dis Fig’s new album, What To Make Of These Mortal Hands, which promises the challenge and comfort in equal measure, judging by the sweeping, sometimes subtle textures.

Dis Fig, Berlin-based producer and vocalist Felicia Chen, confidently challenges the listener to abandon preconceptions as she uses rudimentary elements of noise, industrial, electronic music, and experimental music to play out on a classical canvas, expressed through a haunting violin performance. Sound provides the structure; Chen’s vocals offer us a melody that is laden with emotion, smouldering then shattering, as the piece – it feels reductive to call it a song – teeters on the edge of implosion before growing in intensity. The sudden fade is unexpected, leaving you wondering if this is just part of a wider story, wondering what comes next.

Chen has stated that The Snake You Built was created using a method of glossolalia and shaping lyrics after the emotion was expressed. “For most of this record, I was quite intentional with the lyrics, but this one beamed out differently.”

Head to Das Fig’s Instagram feed for album news, including listening parties in Berlin and New York, and options to stream the project’s music. What To Make Of These Mortal Hands, which is out on the 23rd of October via Thrill Jockey, can be pre-ordered in vinyl and CD formats on Bandcamp.

Header image by Camille Blake