Single Premiere: "When Things Go And Set You Back" - pseudo-antigone
From early scrappy artistry to sharply precise music productions, pseudo-antigone is the experimental pop and hyperpop project of philosopher and interdisciplinary artist Simone Atenea Medina Polo. Today, Cups N Cakes is pleased to share news of a new full length record from the Edmonton based artist; it’s called Melancholic Melodrama, and it comes out on August 15th. We’re excited to be able to give folks an exclusive listen to the first single, titled “When Things Go And Set You Back”, which will be out everywhere on Friday, June 6th.
In 2021, pseudo-antigone gained considerable attention for her first LP Into the Void of Infinite Sadness which was an exploration of the grief and unexpected joys left behind by the COVID-19 (it was featured as a Pick of the Week back in May of 2021). Her star has only risen since then, with a mention on Exclaim! Magazine’s “Emerging Artists You Need to Hear” section in May 2021, an appearance at Edmonton’s Purple City fest in 2024, and a well received (and indie radio chart topping) third LP released just over three months ago.
“When Things Go And Set You Back” builds on the sound that pseudo-antigone has been refining for years now; it’s a club-worthy earworm, but with flare for chopping and screwing sounds together in ways that are stylish and surreal. And the surreal nature of the work is purposeful: Simone Atenea Medina Polo, the artist behind pseudo-antigone, based the album around a loose narrative that examines the fantasy of stardom in a way that only pseudo-antigone can:
This is the first single for an upcoming album titled Melancholic Melodrama, which is a story about the contradictions and tensions of the escapist fantasy of becoming a popstar. Driven by industrial pop sound design, the album provides a fictionalized intimation of the musician’s confrontation with her own standing over her artistic practice by telling the story of an artist who gives up her humanity in a Faustian bargain to become The Popstar. The album explores the deliberations leading to this decision as well as the consequent spiral into nine circles of hell of her own making as she gets entangled in the spotlight, tacked onto tabloid headlines, and the many scandals that surround her every move. In the end, she cracks when she realizes the extent and depth of the personal sacrifices that she made to pave the way for The Popstar, facing her yearning for everyone she threw away and overwhelmed with grief at her losses — above all the loss of herself in the mix.
Melancholic Melodrama comes out on August 15th, and the first single, “When Things Go And Set You Back” comes out on June 6th, but can be streamed below.