Track: Half Waif – Severed Logic

Half Waif’s exploration of home inspires wandering soundscapes and restless lyrics on new single ‘Severed Logic’.

Brooklyn-based Nandi Rose Plunkett – joined by Zack Levine and Adan Carlo as Half Waif – is continually seeking a sense of place and it is this ongoing search that runs through her forthcoming EP, ‘form/a’ (due for release on 24 February via Cascine). “There’s an inherent restlessness in the way that I write and think about sound,” she explains. “I’m the daughter of a refugee, and somewhere in me is this innate story of searching for a home. As a result, I have many – a collection of places that I latch onto, that inspire me, that fuse themselves to me. I’m sentimental, nostalgic – yet constantly seeking what’s next, excavating the sound of my past and colouring it to make the sound of my future.”

‘Severed Logic’ is the first track on ‘form/a’ and invokes Plunkett’s mixed feelings of sentiment for the past and deliberation of the future, as she examines a relationship and questions the worthiness of it – “What if I remove myself from the action? Knowing every move is a reaction. My mood is a pendulum, I don’t think you can handle it.”

The shifting feelings are reflected in the warping electronic soundscape. The track begins with a twisting, almost sinister, synth melody that wouldn’t sound out of place on the soundtrack for dark retro sci-fi series ‘Stranger Things’. When the beats kick in along with layered, Celtic sounding, vocals this track begins to reverberate around your head. As the song develops you become enveloped in the warmth that radiates from it.

To promote the forthcoming release of the EP on limited edition 12” Half Waif are playing a handful of UK shows, including a date as part of Glasgow’s Celtic Connections festival.

Half Waif may continue to search for a sense of place, but in ‘Severed Logic’ she has discovered her most compelling songwriting to date.