São Paulo artist blends dark alternative weight and blackened shoegaze atmosphere on new track out now.
São Paulo-based artist Starly Kind released their new single “Starly Kind” on January 30 via CorpoRAT Records, offering the first glimpse into their upcoming EP Inferno: (Xe/Xem), due in May.
The six-track EP began as a poem, with each title first conceived as a line on the page before evolving into song. That literary foundation remains intact in the music’s structure and tone. “Starly Kind” functions as the narrative preamble, introducing a shamanistic demon figure and setting the emotional and thematic arc for the record.
The track opens with a sparse electronic beat and a grimy bassline before expanding into airy, stacked vocal harmonies. The contrast between heaviness and lift mirrors the song’s lyrical descent into a personal hellscape. Lines referencing Roswell, gates of hell, and a town flooded with bloodlust frame the EP’s core tension: queer existential angst and the search for meaning in a hostile world.
Rather than presenting escape as the only option, the song shifts toward uneasy acceptance. What begins as a plea for deliverance gradually transforms into a desire for survival and self-preservation within the chaos. The sound follows suit, balancing dark alternative intensity with elements of post-grunge, noisy indie textures, and blackened shoegaze haze.
Inferno: (Xe/Xem) was co-produced by Starly Lou Riggs and Leo Fazio, who also played bass on all tracks except “Demon Dreams.” Piano contributions come from Matheus Vieira, and the EP was mixed and mastered at Veredas Áudio in São Paulo by engineer Iran Ribas.
Upon its release in May, Inferno: (Xe/Xem) will be available digitally and in limited physical editions, including cassette, CD, vinyl, and lathe-cut singles featuring screen-printed artwork.
With “Starly Kind,” the project establishes a dense, introspective world — one where poetry, distortion, and identity collide in a dark, immersive soundscape.
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