Photo: Craig Mulcahy

MJ Guider delivers beat-driven shoegaze on “FM Secure” and announces new album

MJ Guider aka Melissa Guion has announced the follow up to her 2016 debut album; it’s called Sour Cherry Bell and is coming out on September 18 through Kranky. She states that: “I was curious to see how far I could go with them, even if that meant reaching the ends of their capacity to do what I wanted. But I never exhausted them and they never exhausted me.”

Today she has shared the lead single “FM Secure”, which gives us an intriguing insight into what that process has yielded. The track builds spectral walls of drone surrounding a chunky beat, before MJ Guider’s sing-spoken vocal glides in with captivating grace. She brings up many arresting images and her voice echoes out into the cavernous production, giving them all the more impact. “FM Secure” subtly builds in more beats and layers of bass, until we feel like we’re almost in the underbelly of a shoegaze song – the intensity is there, but not right in your face, and the result is intoxicating.

FM Guider’s new album Sour Cherry Bell will be coming out on September 18 via Kranky. You can find her on Bandcamp and Instagram.