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Ora Cogan’s electric, orchestral, and no-nonsense album is due an eagerly awaited European release on May 31st. Formless, which aired to great acclaim in the US last year, was her only means to expiate the bleakness of lockdown, the curfews, the walks. Music was her only escape, and it stopped her from going insane in a mad world. In her words, “I spent a lot of time wandering aimlessly in the woods with my dog.”
There’s a distinct urgency here that only lockdown could ever bring – eschatological lyrics, fragmentary guitars, a breathtaking number of chorus pedals. For Cogan, the album consists of recentring chaos through the medium of songwriting. She notes, “[I was] re-calibrating an internal compass constantly thrown off by the magnetism of a deranged world.” Such balance between magnetism and repulsion reflects her occasionally unpredictable repertoire; it can take a few listens to meet her on her terms – each song a contradiction of sorts, ever-shifting, hard to pin down.
But maybe her sound was always perfect for a global meltdown. Formless is, in many ways, a logical progression from Bells in the Ruins (2020) or even Shadowland (2016) – full of the same vintage, and gorgeously scruffy, analogical production that screams apocalypse at every turn. She defines her music, somewhat cryptically, as a merge between ‘smoky, psychedelic approach to gothic country and hazy folk with post-punk, groove, psych-rock and traditional balladry’. Unsurprisingly, the result is deeply complex – a multi-layered amalgam we never expected.
Lankum’s Cormac Mac Diarmada’s haunting strings are apposite, and gracefully adorn Cogan’s voice – not to mention her co-production with Loving’s David Parry. Cogan’s music is intriguing; she sounds like lots of people, and also like no one. Mazzy Star’s Hope Sandoval (who she has supported on occasion) springs to mind, as does Just Mustard’s Katie Bell, or maybe even Nico. The endless layers of guitars blend My Bloody Valentine-shoe-gazing with some welcome, good old-fashioned rock and roll.
Holy Hells is an addictively percussive number that combines The Doors, Radiohead’s Hail to the Thief, and Can – full of electric fuzz and surprising syncopation. Cowgirls eerily sounds like a country western played backwards through a chorus pedal; Dyed is a Nico-inspired melody that waltzes into unexpected modal and orchestral nuance (Jonny Greenwood fans take note). Feel Life once more evokes the rhythmic versatility of Can – then emerges with an irrepressible synth that is worthy of New Order’s Blue Monday. There’s a logical looseness here, a jazzy, slightly dotty fusion which blends uncannily with Cormac Mac Diarmada’s underlying signature strings.
Ways of Losing, is a return to singer-songwriter territory – with a clear, acoustic vibe, a bit like Big Thief, or Radiohead’s Desert Island Disk. A layer of retro-harmonies evokes 1940s The Chordettes, as it floats innocently over bright guitar. Towards the end of this song, a trumpet (no less) soars above everything in a jazzy overture, like a tribute to Pink Floyd’s The Great Gig In The Sky.
Is Anything Wrong, the final track, is a beauty and the pick of the bunch – so effortless and nonchalant that we almost overlook its intricate frailty. The no-fuss production evokes Moe from The Velvet Underground singing ‘I’m sticking with you’ at the end of VU. One senses that Cogan would always have ended up here, at the very essence of folk – or, as she calls it, ‘traditional balladry’.
In truth, however, it’s less straightforward. One sometimes has a sense of where she’s going before she loses us altogether, leaves us for dead. As the title suggests, Cogan’s gift is her formlessness: her absolute refusal to bow to convention, as she tirelessly shifts and strives for something bigger – something we never expected.
‘Formless’ (EU Release) releases on May 31st via Prism Tongue.
Ora Cogan opens the latest KLOF Mag Mixtape (No. 32), listen here.
Ora Cogan UK/EU Tour Dates
02/06/2024 LUX Luxembourg Rotondes Klub
03/06/2024 FR Paris Supersonic Records
05/06/2024 FR Chambéry Brin de Zinc
06/06/2024 CH Geneve Le Rez Usine
07/06/2024 DE Munich Milla
08/06/2024 DE Regensburg Void Fest WarmUp
09/06/2024 PL Krakow Klub Re
10/06/2024 PL Warsaw Chmury
11/06/2024 CZ Brno Kabinet Muz
12/06/2024 DE Berlin Loophole
13/06/2024 DK Copenhagen Beta
14/06/2024 SE Uddevalla Uddevallakassetten
15/06/2024 NO Oslo Dunk
16/06/2024 NO Bergen Landmark
18/06/2024 SE Gothenburg Koloni
19/06/2024 SE Malmo Annelundsgården
21/06/2024 DE Offenbach-Am-Main Hafen 2
23/06/2024 UK Brighton The Prince Albert
24/06/2024 UK Birmingham Hare & Hounds
25/06/2024 UK Bristol Crofters Rights
27/06/2024 UK Glasgow The Glad Cafe
28/06/2024 UK Sheffield Hatch
29/06/2024 UK London The Lexington
