Spectral folk artist devəlmāˈker (aka Doug McCarthy) is back with another evocative single on March 14th, and we’ve got an exclusive preview of the track for you. “Flagler Blues” is a plaintive track about alcoholism, using haunting electric guitar and a bedrock of melancholic keyboards to evoke feelings of uncertainty and catharsis.
“Let me tell you ’bout a feeling,” McCarthy beckons before launching into his confessional. “This song is all the thoughts I’ve tried to fight over the years that spilled out through my voice and instruments,” McCarthy tells us. “This is my admission of my problem, but also hoping for a way to fight it to not consume me.”
Listen to the new track below.
We talked to devəlmāˈker last year when he released Antonym, Pt. 1, an intimate collection of tracks that were all mixed, produced, and performed by McCarthy himself. And while that project was an emotional and atmospheric trip in its own right, devəlmāˈker’s sound has really blossomed into something even bigger, enveloping the listener fully in its emotions. Last October’s “0 Miles To Empty” showed McCarthy experimenting with his instrumentation, but on “Flagler Blues” it’s clear that he’s starting to master his spectral folk sound.
Antonym, Pt. 2 is slated to release in April 2023, a full year after Pt. 1.
Follow devəlmāˈker over on Twitter and Instagram, check out his Bandcamp, and be sure to pre-save “Flagler Blues”.