Doldrums

Airick Woodhead, emerging from Montreal’s late-2000s noise scene, launched the solo project Doldrums in 2010. Electronic sequencing fused with noisy sample-based textures and hypnotic pop frameworks defined the music, which surfaced first through scattered tracks, 7" singles, remixes, and a VHS video collection. In 2011 Portishead, impressed by Doldrums’ cover of “Chase the Tear,” placed that version on the B-side of their own single release. The debut EP Empire Sound appeared the same year, followed by the Egypt 12" in 2012. Doldrums maintained an intensive touring schedule as a three-person live unit, sharing bills with contemporaries including Grimes and Purity Ring. The first full-length, Lesser Evil, arrived in early 2013 and consolidated the project’s previously scattered sounds into its most unified statement. Further road work followed, and encounters across the United States supplied thematic material for the next album. Drawing its title from the Henry Miller book of the same name, 2015’s The Air Conditioned Nightmare examined the more surreal regions of America in its lyrics while shifting musically toward deeper electronic influences.