Tracklist:

1. cil
2. frogsporn
3. tiny gymnast
4. chaperone
5. medieval
6. nature girl
7. sad nun

Mermaid Chunky. Its all in a name, sometimes. The danceable, costumed, curiosity rich duo of artists Freya Tate and Moina Moin are as imaginative as they profess. Or, to get more to the point, as we all need them to be.

Freya and Moina are two visual artists and musicians from Stroud and South London, places where they importantly found communities (Strouds SVA and the capitals Total Refreshment Centre) of like minded people just as willing to chase down an idea to its possibly illogical conclusion. And it is in the collective and the idea of participation that Mermaid Chunky really clicks. This is a party, a collective dance, made all the better with more: people, ideas, layers, kick drums, recorders, saxophones, frogs.

To wit, the albums first track and first single, Cil, named after a traditional Scottish or Irish social gathering and dance, which builds from a simple recorder line into a swelling, warm burst of major chord dance music. Goosebumps or check your pulse.

Further down the rabbit hole, Chaperone is almost boardwalk electro, like Fischerspooner on a ferris wheel; Frogsporn and Nature Girl are mucky, trippy dirges filled with stalactites of synth and squelch; Tiny Gymnast is a kaleidoscopic waltz into the night. Hold onto your seats, ladies and gentlemen.

You might be wondering how we, DFA Records, all the way over in cynical Brooklyn, entered the picture. There was a day a few years ago, sun shining in full Springtime splendor, when James heard something while waiting for a coffee down the street from the office. It sounded simple yet deceptively complex: a dance track, but one where the one – that anchoring first beat in a measure – could be heard a thousand different ways. Frustrated and interested, he Shazamd the song, playing at the shop from an episode of Zakias Questing show on NTS, and brought it back to the office, where we all listened to it about fifty times. (The song was Friends, from Mermaid Chunkys VEST EP, released in 2020. It led to an invitation to open for LCD at Brixton Academy in 2022. Mermaid Chunky has also played live alongside The Comet Is Coming, Alabastair Deplume, Snapped Ankles, and many others.)

Thus began our search for Mermaid Chunky. A quest it has been and a quest it will always be.