After their sudden return from the silence three weeks ago, Cologne’s beloved indie pop band Xul Zolar are giving us a new insight into their upcoming debut full-length record Fear Talk with their new single Soft Drones, which we are proud to premiere today on NOTHING BUT HOPE AND PASSION.
From the noise of bubbling water and reverberant clicks rises a spheric drone which, supported by Dennis Hoffmann’s weighty rhythms, lays the foundation for an unusually subdued vocal delivery. Only in the later stages of the song does Ronald Röttel’s singing move into the higher registers, up until the point where it become distorted into a synthetic approximation of a frail human voice as Röttel laments
‘When it’s so much to say / That your love can’t be played’.
It is a song that doesn’t give away its hooks immediately, despite the transparent production by Marvin Horsch which sacrifices the haziness and density of Xul Zolar’s earlier works for a new-found sake of clarity. Marin Geier’s lengthy guitar motifs behave like complex shapes that convey dark, tropical vibes as they lead Soft Drones into a rhythmically charged, tense final.
The band’s long-awaited debut album Fear Talk comes out on January 19th via Asmara Records. Be sure to catch them on their upcoming tour supporting their colleagues and label mates of Woman after listening to Soft Drones below.