serpentwithfeet's New Single Is Full of Spectral Sensuality

In an interview with Pitchfork about his new-ish project serpentwithfeet, New York singer-songwriter Josiah Wise thinks of his artistic efforts as "like a matryoshka doll." He sees this project as the Russian toy's container-like outer layer, capable of encasing all of his previous musical incarnations—the classical vocal student, the hippie soul singer—somewhere within its grand existential questions. But today, as he releases a new song called "Blisters," drawn from a debut EP of the same name, he gives reason to question that metaphor—or any other that casts this project as made of materials as fixed as wood, porcelain, or stone.

No, Wise uses songs like "Blisters" to construct a more vaporous version of the world. Written and produced with help from fellow Tri Angle-signee the Haxan Cloak, Wise floats gracefully above a plinking harp and swelling strings, offering abstract advice to another—potentially a lover. "You should know that the world outside my door has tightened its womb for you," He sings. And even if the message is unclear, his gracefully slinking delivery drives home at least one part of its spectral intent. It's welcoming and haunting all at once, a come on from the great beyond, where meaning is slippery but everything still feels kinda sensual anyway.

Or, as our Social Media Editor Trey Smith put it: "It makes me want to hook up with a ghost of something."

Listen to the spooky sultriness right here as you wait for the EP of the same name, out September 2 on Tri Angle.