“Caffeine Orange,” the latest single from Canadian-born, London-based artist Bliss Carmxn, is the sound of those spaces between. Its actual sound certainly walks a fine line between chart accessibility and the more experimental realm, between folktronica and avant-pop, which already makes things sound beguiling, but that’s not what I’m talking about. It’s more about a vibe, a feeling, something less tangible than even the intangibility of sound.
The lyrics place the song at 8 am, itself a portal between the night and the morning, at least in terms of human activity, the time of journeys, both to work and returning home. But the song is more specific than that, drenched in the imagery of the natural world — lilacs, melting clouds, white sand, and internal dialogues asking about the nature of love — it seems to hover between so many ideas.
And this liminal space is also expressed in the music, which is dreamlike and spacious, blending Oriental charm and otherworldly chime, shuffling and urgent beats, sounds gathered from the far corners of music-making, and a feeling of disconnection and detachment.
It is a journey, I know that is one of those clichés, but sonically, this is, taking us, as it does from folk to synth pop to the edge of dance music, but never stopping in any one realm long enough to be categorized or labeled.
Bliss Carmxn has been out of the public consciousness for a year or so, but this is how you make a comeback: this is how you erase those missing months and make it feel as if you have never been away at all.
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