“Fear O’ the Light,” coming off Katie Dey’s latest release Flood Network through Joy Void Recordings, is perfectly titled for what it evokes: a juxtaposition of light and fear. Ethereal vocals collide with perfectly discordant instrumentals, creating a piercing sense of harmony. It is the embodiment of the feeling that overtakes your body when you look at someone you love: immense happiness wrapped in chaos; a dizzying sense of terror intimately intertwined with rapturous joy; a high felt all the way through your bones.
Although titled “Fear O’ the Light,” the song feels like it was written and composed with particles of light fused in between the notes, blindingly bright but too beautiful to look away from, that same dizzying intersection of panic and ecstasy in a moment where everything corporeal seems to fall away, leaving only a body of light to remain, to fear, to love. Listen to “Fear O’ the Light” for yourself.
The entire album is available for pre-order on cassette here.