Balderdasch does not ease you in. “Homoerotic,” the latest single from the Irish, London-based experimental pop artist, is an electro-industrial gut-punch that draws from Kim Gordon, Deli Girls, and Nine Inch Nails while remaining something entirely its own. Self-produced with additional production and mixing by Pete Wareham and mastering by Jamie Hyland of M(h)aol, the track was stress-tested live in Germany before hitting the studio, and that process shows. The synths and kick drum are pushed to the edge, the bass engineered to shake a club speaker. It is sexy, abrasive, and completely intentional.
Lyrically, the song navigates repression, insecurity, and self-reinvention through a character drenched in bravado. “There’s a lot of intentional bravado, a ‘fake it till you make it’ attitude,” Balderdasch explains. “It had to feel sexy, but with this desperation underneath. A character is being performed but the vulnerability seeps through.” The accompanying visualiser, shot between her London flat and Sherkin Island and processed through a VHS player by Matt Spratt, carries the same raw, confrontational energy. The ‘Stillness Gyrating’ EP is out now via Apollo.