Underscores, the project of
New York-based San Fransisco-born transgender Filipino-American singer-songwriter and producer April Grey (born Devon Karpf), emerged as a diligent pupil of
Skrillex's dubstep
singles such as Mild Season (2015) and EPs such as
the orchestral About the Kid that Never Left the House (2018),
the oneiric Melodrama, off the EP Skin Purifying Treatment (2018),
the neosoul-tinged Set u Off (365), off the EP
We Never Got Strawberry Cake (2019),
and the poppy Pay Attention, off the EP Character Development (2020).
Grey was also a member of the electronic collective Six Impala that released the albums Rubber (2019) and WFLYTD (2020), and of the band Papaya & Friends that debuted with the single Lactose Intolerable (2020).
The album Fishmonger (2021) altered
Grey's trajectory, introducing her as a practitioner of
100 Gecs-style
hyperpop with
catchy singalongs disguised in different ways (Your Favorite Sidekick,
Dry Land 2001).
The project succeeds when it is matched by adequate energy, as in the
ramshackle punk-rock of 70%, in the
exuberant ska-punk of Spoiled Little Brat and in the
grunge-folk hybrid Kinko’s Field Trip 2006.
But thousands of musicians have already made similar songs.
The album had an appendix a few weeks later: the seven-song EP
Boneyard aka Fearmonger (2021), with the
bombastic Tongue in Cheek (produced by Blink-182's Travis Barker).
After the single Count of Three (You Can Eat $#@!) (2023), Underscores' second album Wallsocket (2023)
expanded the narrative of Tongue in Cheek
and of the 21-minute EP The Story of S*nny (2022)
into a whole concept album about three troubled young women named S*nny, Mara, and Old Money Bitch who live in a small town.
Hyperpop singalongs like Locals (probably inspired by cheerleaders practice), Johnny Johnny Johnny (probably inspired by playground' nursery rhymes) and Old Money Bitch (probably inspired by tropical parties) are now
vehicles for a more mature, austere and eloquent narrative, which in fact
works better in the
naked format of You Don’t Even Know Who I Am and Horror Movie Soundtrack.
Grey/ Karpf borrows from bombastic emo-pop for Cops and Robbers (with a childish coda of noise) and Uncanny Long Arms,
and Shoot To Kill recalls
Beck's eccentric synth-pop.
Whatever the style, the songs mainly rely on the highly emotional
lyrics. The melodies and beats are far from original, but the laptop work
(the production) is impeccable and imaginative, both when layers of sounds
creates burst of noise and when alien sounds (like a vocal sample) destabilize an otherwise straightforward tune.
