Featured: Dani Shivers – “Up”
Independiente, Mexico
by Enrique Coyotzi
As a somber, sour, hellish nightmare, Tijuana’s evil girl, Dani Shivers, understands how to effectively create spooky synth pop music that manages to be partially playful, yet causing an inevitable anxiety with its haunted house-like arrangements and incessant urgency in lyrical repetition which flirt with melodious ability. The artist’s macabre formula is complemented with her versatile way of singing; Shivers regularly intones certain words in a childish manner, other times she sounds gloomily remorseful, or simply menacing.
One of the standouts featured in our latest compilation, Sebastián, and included in Shivers’ Jinx Demo EP (the final version is set to be released on October 31st), “Up” is a track constructed under a bleak beat box rhythm, alongside a creepy synth line that, during the uneasy chorus, evolves into a goosebumps-inducing cascade of wicked sound and Shivers’ almost palpable, bloodcurdling vocal interpretation. Like watching a top-notch horror B movie (see: Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead), the song’s austere bedroom homemade production makes it an even scarier swallow, as every element in this demo is stripped down to the bone. “I wish I knew what to say," the singer announces diffidently, having lost track without giving a damn; she envisions latent enlightenment going “up, and up, and up," but in the end, her destiny appears to be doomed by a fatidic, grave conclusion, falling “down, down, down, down”.