BARQ are ramping it up with their latest 'agro-soul' offering.
BARQ have returned with more tight grooves and soulful melodies. 'Dive' sees the Dublin quartet continue in this new direction of electronic infused funk-soul.
Produced by Diffusion Lab's Marcin Ciszczon, the instrumentation on 'Dive' is strong and driving, juxtaposing the smooth, hazy turmoil of the melody. BARQ's lead singer-songwriter Jess Kav (whose voice is – as ever – in pristine form on the track), explained via Instagram stories: "I began to suffer from brain fog and significant burn out about two and a half years ago...I began to think about family [and] intergenerational trauma. What unexplained, visceral fears I had inside that may have been my mother's, or grandmother's...I wondered how much of myself I had control over.
"It's hard not to feel simultaneously connected to everything but also somehow separate when you're mixed race. And how exhausting it has been to explain who I am to people. When a display of pride in my roots made others uncomfortable and how easy it was for me to be silenced or hurt. How easy it has been for white Irish to embrace me into homogeny, rather than accept my complexity. I'm going to contemplate healing. Because when I am strong I can help others and that's a good state to be in. All my love and Black Lives Matter."