Alluring swarming vocals slip like a breeze over a gently rolling sea on Mariah van Kleef’s new single “Infauna 2,” an electronic remix/reimagining of “Infauna,” a song she dropped in an acoustic iteration in January.
We’re premiering the more rhythmic and propulsive remixed version of the song below.
The airy shifting voices of van Kleef, named Best Vocalist in Queen City Nerve’s Best in the Nest in December, and her songwriting partner Mary-Beth Arthur seem languorous and seductive at first, buffeted by original “Infauna” producer Justin Aswell’s harmonic, organic and windblown synthesizer pads and lowing bowed bass.
“Moonchild/ come with me/ We have things to give to the sea/ We have/ miles to go/ Many miles of things/ You should know/ Why don’t you just stay and swim with me?”
Producer and remixer Margolnick, also known as Drake Margolnick of Charlotte indie-rock duo Flagship, introduces wavering otherworldly elements that suggest a film’s warbling soundtrack as it gets stuck in the projector’s gate.
Meanwhile, the song’s innocent protagonist is enticed and drawn deeper under the surface.
“See the sun disappear/ From the roof of ocean clear/ above us/ Oh, but what is under us?”
The siren’s song
Named for the animals living in the sediments of the ocean floor, the song tells a story of a mythological being, a siren-human hybrid, recruiting another human to convert her into one of her subsurface race, van Kleef says.
“[The siren] is basically luring her, dragging her into the depths, but you can’t really tell whether it’s villainous or goodhearted,” van Kleef continues. “It’s a little bit of both.”
It’s also sensual, psychological and challenging, exploring the gray area between shivering with anticipation or shuddering with dread.
The song’s inception goes back 10 years, when van Kleef performed with Arthur as the duo Rose Hips at coffee shops and jazz clubs across the Carolinas. One day, Arthur brought a guitar hook and a lyrical snippet based on a dream she had to practice. These became the basis of what was to become “Infauna,” finished by van Kleef in the throes of a green tea and St-Germain elderflower liqueur-fueled songwriting session.
Then life happened, as van Kleef and Arthur each followed different paths. The friends reunite to play and sing on “Infauna” and “Infauna 2.” Arthur’s guitar and vocal can be heard at the beginning of the tracks before van Kleef’s swirling complex harmonies and coiling guitars come to the fore.
The touch of two producers
Mariah van Kleef says she’s ecstatic with the production work Aswell did on the acoustic version of “Infauna,” a primal Sargasso Sea of gently hissing white noise and lapping waves, but she wanted to explore a different impact and feel on the remix.
“I wanted percussion,” she says. “I wanted it to be heavier.” She feels she attained that goal with Margolnick.
On the electronic remix “Infauna 2,” Margolnick underpins the verses with subtle yet unearthly effects that suggest the sound of cosmic rays colliding and spitting ions in the upper atmosphere. As the song progresses, breezy washes of synths and whirlpooling guitars collide with skipping and skittering electronic beats.
Mariah van Kleef plans to work with both producers moving forward, insisting that she couldn’t choose a favorite between the two versions of the song if she had to.
“I think that the storytelling of the lyrics rings clearer in the acoustic version,” she says. “[But the electronic version] is more pulsing. It moves your body more.”
“ It makes me feel incredibly powerful,” van Kleef continues. “I think it brings that villainous siren lore out of me. It just feels a bit more menacing.”
‘Infauna’ is part of a bigger, deeper project
As deep into the briny depths as van Kleef’s protagonists delve in “Infauna” and “Infauna 2,” the two versions of the song are only scratching the surface of the singer-songwriter’s examination of sirens, demons and goddesses, a female pantheon of divinities that have been buried under centuries of brittle patriarchy.
“Infauna 2” is one song on a planned full-length album, which will be part of a larger, multidisciplinary concept project, says van Kleef.
That project, which runs April 7-25 at UNC Charlotte’s Popp Martin gallery in the main campus’s Student Union, with an opening reception on April 17, is an art installation by van Kleef’s collaborator and art director, multidisciplinary artist Victoria Byers.
It includes a folkloric book written by van Kleef, a musical performance by van Kleef and her band and a brief lecture on the history of sirens and other mythological creatures.
“[The project] is about the female experience of being an archetypical creature, how that represents the folklore of the time, and also how the patriarchy has changed these demons that once belonged to women,” van Kleef says.
“These demons, these creatures, have become almost like porn stars [today],” she continues. “Like the modern mermaid is totally a male fantasy, right?”
That is, unless that mermaid is like the siren in “Infauna 2,” a deity that draws women to a deep enfolding netherworld of alien beauty.
“The ocean seabed shows/ A wondrous lush of growth/ Where sirens/ Show you/ Show you that they know you/ Show you that they own you/ Show you that they know you/ Now you are a clone, too…”
Does the song depict a woman drawn to her doom, or a seeker of knowledge, discovering a transformative existence beyond the realm of men?
“Infauna,” poses that question, but it’s up to the listener to decide.
