Australian-born, Berlin-based percussionist and songwriter Eilis Frawley confronts the relentless demands on our attention with ‘Calm Down’, the second glimpse of her forthcoming album. Questioning how much control we really have over the information we’re fed, Frawley ultimately arrives at a deceptively simple response: “When everything is demanding our attention, maybe the best thing we can do is nothing at all.”
Built around a disjointed, hypnotic rhythm, ‘Calm Down’ turns information overload into something almost physical. Clattering, clicking and tapping percussion collides with synth sounds and a persistent motorik pulse, creating a sparse yet strangely crowded arrangement that feels distinctly post-punk and carries the experimental character of Frawley’s Berlin surroundings. It’s messy in a way that feels entirely deliberate, becoming increasingly dizzying and uneasy as the track pulls at the listener’s attention from different directions.
Over it all, Frawley remains comparatively detached, her direct spoken-word delivery and distinctive Australian accent cutting cleanly through the surrounding noise. The accompanying lyric video pushes the sensory overload further, placing her words against shifting, hypnotic black-and-white patterns. For a song called ‘Calm Down’, there’s very little about it that actually feels calm — and that’s precisely why its eventual call for stillness makes so much sense.
