When Paul Koskins and Charles Perrone came together in 2013, stuff they were set out on creating a partnership that was “dedicated to exchanging local and global music finds, cheap sharing ideas and collaborating over musical pieces and puzzles.” The result was Kármán Voh, thumb a Boston music collective that has gone thru several transformations to arrive to their unique sound.
Their new release “WROTH” has been in the works as early as 2014, when Koskins began writing the song after being inspired by Naomi Klein’s No Logo and The Knife’s Shaking the Habitual. “WROTH” exemplifies the group’s ambitious nature, as a looped sample of Turkish banjo is paired with driving drums and ambient synths to create a track unbound by any specific genre. Their inclusion of Koskins’ haunting vocals and Perrone on the accordion only adds to the depth.
In addition to the stellar production, the song also tackles some important subjects with deft songwriting. “It’s inspired by queer theory and intersectional feminism,” says Kármán Voh, “Lyrics like ‘stepping down from your higher place’ and ‘my city turned highways’ focus on the hierarchical relationship between patriarchy and global economics – a system that structurally disenfranchises non-white/non-male persons and voices while sustaining a practice of poverty equaling profitability.”
Listen to “WROTH” below, and be sure to catch Kármán Voh live when they play alongside St. Nothing and Tristan Allen at ONCE Somerville on Sept. 21st.