Photo credit: Anna McGuffie
Michigan-based singer-songwriter Khal Malik releases new EP ‘Fog’ – the latest under his Bedtime Khal moniker – via Devil Down Tapes on 15 May. The record finds Khal offering observations on race, love, feelings and the power of nostalgia.
Opening track (and recent single) ‘Black Tears’ finds Khal revealing how it feels to be a black or brown person and how society can trigger anxieties and frustrations. Set against a dreamy, synthy DIY sound that recalls Stars, he delivers poignant observations including ‘Black tears, brown tears, they taste like the ocean’ and the Los Camp-esque ‘Heartbreat crescendos in my chest lose touch when the sinking feelings hit’. The song builds up the pace as Khal triumphantly talks about something we all loved back in the day: ‘Back up fall down again, we return to the mosh pit’.
‘Shooting Hoops’ takes the EP into more experimental territory before settling into an art pop sound with quirky effects, handclaps and lyrics about picking vegetables and different colours. ‘Zaheer’ falls somewhere between The Orielles and The Postal Service with its big bass and toe-tapping beats – although this is set against powerful accounts of Khal’s mental health struggles: ‘I’m looking out, all I see is an empty void on its way to me’; ‘Feelings darker than the melanin on my skin’.
‘Fog’ is an EP you’ll want to seek out.