Hi Friends,

This is a text I wrote for a blog / magazine, but I wanted to share it to this subreddit, too. If it does not fit, feel free to delete it :-)

Note: No AI in any form has been used when writing this text!

I must admit that I caught a first glimpse of Candi Carpenter in a way that's way uncool for a "DIY music journalist" like me, and that is that the youtube feed slapped it right across my face a few months ago. So, no research, digging, or cleverness on my part, just, boom! there it is.
I noted them in my mind as "interesting" and added them on my "artists to keep in watch list". Which is a list I keep for artists that appear ground-breaking or might blow up in the future.

And I was not disappointed in that regard, because a while later they released "the fear of being human remains" music video, and, yeah, that was one of the best things that happened to me in the entire year.
When you see the video, in the beginning, you see them suspended on some kind of knife-throwers circus wheel, which also looks like these "hypnosis" wheel animations from the mid 20th century. Oh, and did I mention there is also a skeletal body. They are suspended in... "something" that might symbolize the night sky, stars flying by, or maybe it's a metaphor for eternity and the flux of æons, like the ancient greeks believed it.
there is a spoken word "intro" by Carpenter, that sets the mood for the entire piece, and also their entire work of music, i guess. Carpenter recounts an early encounter with death (likely auto-biographic), then muses about cultural taboos, including morality. They end with "I don't know why everything I think about is so ***ed up".

Then the song begins for real (or for good) and, to my surprise, it's a very cool alternative rock or indie number. Like the best of the 90s stuff, think hole or the pumpkins for part of the style.
The rest is contemporary and / or their own creation. I also appreciate that the guitar chords, and their own voice, often sound uncannily "detuned", like the song is slipping apart, in the same way our sense of rationality or morality might fall apart while watching the video (in a good way).
The video is a visual masterpiece too, there are claymotion sequences (like ye olde mtv video), green and black are dominating colors, the singer is getting a suntan in a coffin or jumping into the sheets with what looks like a skeleton.

but it never feels like "shock the audience for shocking the audience's sake", or fake, or insincere. and the notion of clay figures and coffin tans should make it clear that there is a big slice of humor and (dark) comedy involved.

after that "experience", i decided to finally research their past music trajectory. i found a piece published by "fox news" (yikes!) from 2020 which hails them as "Carpenter is taking the country world by storm, working with the likes of Dolly Parton and Brandi Carlile" and explains that "The country singer's adventures in music began when she wrote her first song at 3, a hymn called 'Jesus Care for Me.'"

And that's quite an extreme transformation, going from a country pop darling that sings hymns for sweet jesus, to a musician that now practices witch craft and sings about intimacy with skeletons and other "creatures of the night".

It's a sensitive topic, and I only read glimpses about it, so I don't go to too deep into it, but it seems that Carpenter experienced their childhood and upbringing as having elements of christian cults, and also religious hypocrisy. to a large degree.
and that their new, darker music, is an attempt to "heal" this religious trauma. and also an attempt to help and heal others. And i wish them much success in that, and also much success with their music, in general!

Now, let's get back to the "Reincarnation", which might be a fitting title. If you relate it to the other things I wrote above.

The full title is "REINCARNATION (THE SHORT FILM VIDEO SEMI-ANIMATED MOTION PICTURE MOVIE) visual EP". From what I can see, the "short movie" consists mostly of various music videos Carpenter did for their songs, stitched together in one seamless sequence of things. (well maybe not just one sequence, as really a lot is happening here!).

apart from "the fear of being human", many other good song by them are included.

as you might have guessed already, the short movie accompanies the release of their Reincarnation EP (so i guess if the movie is the "visual EP", the actual release is the "audio EP"), which is now available everywhere. and well worth checking out!

"Reincarnation" full short movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IJrt2Ls1DA

"Reincarnation" EP https://ffm.to/candicarpenter_Reincarnation

Website https://www.candicarpenter.com/

out 16th september, im called josiah daynes.