Kat Duma Spellbinds on “System”

Toronto’s dark-pop producer and vocalist Kat Duma recently released “System,” the first single from her latest project.

Speaking about the song, Kat says, “The message is whatever you interpret it to be. Lyrically it feels very of-the-moment and while that wasn’t my intention, it does grapple with a sense of uncertainty – it being both fearful and liberating.”

She goes on to add, “‘System’ explores a different direction than what I’ve produced in the past.”

Indeed, it does, reflecting intimate introspective lyrics on lush haunting textures unlike her previous project under the name Kaade, wherein she merged flavors of electro-pop with tints of EDM. Having reinvented her sound, a sound undeniably more alluring and hypnotic, she now records under her own name.

“System” opens on emerging susurrating hues expanding on hazy, hissing filaments exuding portentous sonic imagery. Kat’s dreamy, brooding voice enters, infusing the tune with low-slung wickedly revelatory timbres.

Simple crunching drums establish the initial rhythm, which then enlarges with syncopated percussive accents, providing the tune with mystical ancestral pulses. Layers of bewitching colors swirl and oscillate overhead on logarithmic spirals, engendering a delicious leitmotif pattern at once dazzling and spellbinding.

Rippling and heaving, the music shimmers with translucent interlacing moods – ethereal as effluvium from the Empyrean. The wistful bassline drifts through the soundscape, graceful and molten as a universal element.

The highlight of “System” is Kat’s ghostly, wraithlike voice, imbuing the lyrics with tonal nuances like the phlogiston of the ancients, spread evenly through the ether yet prone to opulent accretion.

“Feel it in my system / The space inside my skin / Tell me if the world is ending / Where do I begin / Overwhelming lightness / Feel it move within / Sinking into a new crisis / When do I begin.”

“System” delivers a lusciously mesmerizing sonic commerce, elusive rhythmic palpitations, and the gorgeous plume of Kat Duma’s exquisite voice.

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