Agitated Atmosphere: Circuit Des Yeux - Overdue

As major labels continue to exist behind the times, artists and labels with little capital and lesser reputations are producing some of the most innovative, interesting, and inspiring music. Whether it’s creating a new niche in digital technology or looking to once obsolete formats, Agitated Atmosphere hopes to pull back the curtain on a wealth of sights and sound from luminaries such as Circuit Des Yeux.

For a woman mature well ahead of her age, Haley Fohr has long dwelled in the muck of emotion and come out better for it. It’s served her well in previous iterations, but with Overdue, Fohr sheds the pretense of youthful angst for hard boiled redemption.

The sorrowful sparkle of the first few notes of “Nova 88” does more to prove Fohr’s evolution from teenage prodigy into a woman unafraid of fight or flight. “Nova 88” is both confident and fragile—that need to run from hurt but embracing it as a growing pain. Plainly speaking, the song serves as a mantra to Fohr’s post-collegiate experience of leaving a small college town for Chicago. The downer turned flower.

Overdue, an album Fohr has unabashedly labeled “the story of my life aka the story of your life,” is indeed a familiar path. The idyllic build of “Bud and Gin,” before the angels turn into demons; the somber reality “Some Day” ruthlessly etches; the isolated pacing of “Acarina” – it’s all too close to the cut. A pile of salt in the wounds. But when you are older, you know that pain to be life. You can’t avoid it because it becomes a part of pleasurable experiences—cooking, eating, creating—and this is the lesson Fohr has captured throughout Overdue. It’s something only learned as age advances but once again, we’re left astonished to be remembered of this simple fact by someone so young.

Justin Spicer is a freelance journalist whose work can be viewed at his website. You can also find him on Twitter.