COTS SHARES SPELLBINDING VIDEO FOR NEW SONG “DEVIL DOES” DIRECTED BY JENN E. NORTON

FROM NEW EP MOONLIT BUILDING 
OUT TOMORROW ON BOILED RECORDS

WATCH / SHARE "DEVIL DOES" HERE

STREAM / BUY MOONLIT BUILDING HERE

Video Still: Jenn E. Norton

Cots – the Montreal-based solo project of composer, singer, and guitarist Steph Yates – tomorrow releases Moonlit Building, a new EP of five songs produced by Olivier Fairfield that deeply explores the noir aspects of her imagination. The follow-up to the enchanting 2021 debut album Disturbing Body – likened to Feist's Let It Die by CBC Music, and "the sophistication of Everything But The Girl's Eden meets the sadness of Portuguese fado" by MOJO – Moonlit Building explores the fringes of Cots’s sonic tapestry, here woven together with strands of folk and bossanova crossed with cinematic, electronic ambience. 

Ahead of the release, Cots today shares “Devil Does” – a skeletal yet brilliant cloud of dark jazz that wrests levity from the feeling of being possessed. The bed track was recorded to iPhone, maintained here but embellished from its original state – Steph’s meandering nylon guitar and playful yet dour vocals intuited by Fairfield’s stunted drums and colourful synthesis. Her lyrics are economical and beautiful, a fever dream of word-for-word perfection (“My head is hot with the blues”) and resilience (“There’s no way ‘round only through”).

“The experience of premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) inspired the lyrics of ‘Devil Does,’” Cots says. “The writing began in deep winter under Montreal COVID curfew. I sent a cellphone recorded demo to Olivier and he added drums and synth. This is one of those cases where the demo could not be improved upon. It became the basis for the final version, cellphone track and all.”

The song arrives with a spellbinding video by Cots collaborator Jenn E. Norton, who previously directed the 3D animation for the Disturbing Body track “Our Breath.” “Devil Does” features Yates clad hair-to-toe in all white contending with the curiosity of her mind-of-its-own shadow. Continuing the cinematic theme introduced in the titular “Moonlit Building” video, the tension of the unknown adds a menacing din to the scene. 

WATCH / SHARE "DEVIL DOES" HERE

The five songs of Moonlit Building showcase the depth of vision that Cots unfurls with each successive chapter of her musical story. In collaboration with producer Fairfield – who is a member of Boiled records labelmates FET.NAT, experimental duo Album, and contributor to the sonic visions of Andy Shauf – Yates subtly pushes the boundaries of her music, whose influences she detailed recently in an interview with Bandcamp Weekly. Yates says: "I have long admired Olivier’s rhythmic sensibility and his knack for moodiness in production, and felt he might be a good match for this set of songs. Working in-studio together was collaborative and experimental: trying things out, trading off instruments, seeing what stuck."

The centrepiece of the EP, “Devil Does” is bounded by the title track, a nearly unsettling composition in devolution that drips in midnight aura, and “Flowers (Fresh Cut)” an askew rearrangement of the Disturbing Body mainstay “Flowers,” with robotic percussion pronouncing its ambling essence with mis-emphasis. “The Woman With No Face” is a meditation on a faceless statue Yates spied in Mexico City, set to a spritely but downcast instrumental; while “No Way No How” completes the collection with its most minimalistic vocal arrangements, a simple mantra to contradict the bottomless, methodical and brilliant ambience spiraling around. 

STREAM / BUY MOONLIT BUILDING HERE

In contrast to the sparer beauty of her debut album, on Moonlit Building Cots experiments with noise and elements of sound that further highlight the anti-genre fluidity of her creations. Fittingly, Yates initially cut her teeth in the local Guelph, Ontario DIY scene, where she learned to be “loud, assertive, and unabashedly scrappy” in outfits like Esther Grey and Cupcake Ductape. A startling evolution of her lush sonic palette, the Moonlit Building EP shows how far Cots’s spare and lovely sound can bend without breaking. Each song uniquely deepens the sombre, mysterious attraction of Yates’s off-kilter folk music, absorbing further experimental, noisy qualities from Fairfield’s like-minded accompaniment. As ever, Cots’s crystalline voice carries her songs about love and its consequences, with the erosion of their composition only adding to their beauty.

WATCH AND SHARE “MOONLIT BUILDING” HERE

PRESS PHOTO // Matthew Cardinal - DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

EP ARTWORK // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

MOONLIT BUILDING TRACKLIST
1. Moonlit Building
2. Flowers (Fresh Cut)
3. Devil Does
4. The Woman With No Face
5. No Way No How

PRAISE FOR DISTURBING BODY:

“A meditation on loneliness and the complexities of the heart, a secret told from Cots to you only.” CBC Music

"Cots leans into gentleness” - Exclaim!

"Closeness and intimacy shine through" - The Line of Best Fit

“Brilliant debut album” - Bandcamp

COTS ONLINE
WEBSITE
INSTAGRAM
FACEBOOK
BANDCAMP 

COTS RELEASES “FLOWERS (FRESH CUT)” 

COTS RELEASES “FLOWERS (FRESH CUT)”  RE-ARRANGED BY PRODUCER OLIVIER FAIRFIELD

NEW EP MOONLIT BUILDING OUT JANUARY 25, 2023 ON BOILED RECORDS

LISTEN / SHARE “FLOWERS (FRESH CUT)” HERE

STREAM / BUY MOONLIT BUILDING HERE

PRESS PHOTO : Matthew Cardinal // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

Cots – the Montreal-based solo project of composer, singer, and guitarist Steph Yates – today releases "Flowers (Fresh Cut)" – the second single from her upcoming Moonlit Building EP, produced in collaboration with the talented musician Olivier Fairfield. “Flowers (Fresh Cut)” is a reshuffle of the centrepiece of Cots's enchanting debut album, Disturbing Body, which CBC likened to Feist's Let It Die, and MOJO described as "the sophistication of Everything But The Girl's Eden meets the sadness of Portuguese fado." Rearranged from its original form as the beautiful skeletal bossanova track “Flowers,” the new “Fresh Cut” version is tilted askew with robotic drums pronouncing the song's ambling essence with mis-emphasis. Fairfield – a member of art-punk outfit FET.NAT and contributor to the sonic visions of Andy Shauf, Timber Timbre, Last Ex and many more – reimagines Steph Yates's elegant nylon string dirge by removing that elemental guitar, instead wrapping warped samba-inspired levity around its soft implication.

Yates says: "I have long admired Olivier’s rhythmic sensibility and his knack for moodiness in production, and felt he might be a good match for this set of songs. Working in-studio together was collaborative and experimental: trying things out, trading off instruments, seeing what stuck."

LISTEN / SHARE “FLOWERS (FRESH CUT)” HERE

​​The new perspective on “Flowers” underscores the depth of Yates’s songwriting throughout Cots’s nascent catalogue. The Guelph, Ontario-bred musician cut her teeth in the local DIY scene, where she learned to be “loud, assertive, and unabashedly scrappy” in outfits like Esther Grey and Cupcake Ductape. A startling evolution of her lush sonic palette, the Moonlit Building EP shows how far Cots’s spare and lovely sound can bend without breaking. The recently released title track, “Moonlit Building,” deepens its somber, mysterious beauty, her off-kilter folk absorbing noir qualities from Fairfield’s accompaniment, her crystalline voice devolving in unison with his gravely baritone, cavernous guitar, and eroding rhythm.

WATCH “MOONLIT BUILDING” HERE

The five song collection Moonlit Building will be released January 25, 2023 on Toronto experimental label Boiled Records

STREAM / BUY MOONLIT BUILDING HERE

EP ARTWORK // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES


MOONLIT BUILDING TRACKLIST
1. Moonlit Building
2. Flowers (Fresh Cut)
3. Devil Does
4. The Woman With No Face
5. No Way No How

FLOWERS (FRESH CUT) SINGLE ARTWORK // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

Praise for Disturbing Body:

“A meditation on loneliness and the complexities of the heart, a secret told from Cots to you only.” - CBC Music

"Cots leans into gentleness” - Exclaim!

"Closeness and intimacy shine through" - The Line of Best Fit

“Brilliant debut album” - Bandcamp

"Nocturnal, pensive, and melancholic" - Atwood

COTS ONLINE
WEBSITE
INSTAGRAM
FACEBOOK
BANDCAMP 

COTS ANNOUNCES NEW EP MOONLIT BUILDING 

OUT JANUARY 25, 2023 ON BOILED RECORDS

SHARES CINEMA NOIR INSPIRED VIDEO TO THE TITLE TRACK

PRODUCED BY OLIVIER FAIRFIELD

WATCH “MOONLIT BUILDING” HERE

STREAM & BUY “MOONLIT BUILDING” HERE

PERFORMS NOV 25 AT THE HORSESHOE WITH THE RHEOSTATICS

STILL IMAGE FROM “MOONLIT BUILDING” // Sarafina Bortolon-Vettor

Cots – the Montreal-based solo project of composer, singer, and guitarist Steph Yates – today shares "Moonlit Building," her first release since the 2021 debut album Disturbing Body, which CBC Music likened to Let It Die-era Feist, and MOJO described as "the sophistication of Everything But The Girl's Eden meets the sadness of Portuguese fado." Produced by Olivier Fairfield – member of FET.NAT, glitch duo Album, and contributor to the incomparable music of Andy Shauf, Timber Timbre, Last Ex and many more – "Moonlit Building" deepens the beautiful, somber, mysterious elements of Yates’s songwriting. Where Disturbing Body weaves elements of bossanova together with jazz and classical, Cots's askew folk takes on a cinematic noir quality with Fairfield's accompaniment: her crystalline voice and nylon guitar devolving in unison with his gravely baritone, cavernous guitar, and eroding rhythm.

Yates says: "I have long admired Olivier’s rhythmic sensibility and his knack for moodiness in production, and felt he might be a good match for this set of songs. Working in-studio together was collaborative and experimental: trying things out, trading off instruments, seeing what stuck."

“Moonlit Building” is accompanied by a music video created with director Sarafina Bortolon-Vettor and "a small crew of pals," wherein Yates is the protagonist of a surreal cinema noir-inspired scene. The tension of the unseen and the unknown fits the song’s im/balanced, decelerating beat. 

WATCH “MOONLIT BUILDING” HERE

“Moonlit Building” is the title track to a five song collection that will be released January 25, 2023 on Boiled Records, the Toronto experimental label who released Disturbing Body. The Moonlit Building EP deftly blends the hushed intimacy of Cots’s voice with the fringe musical influences of her roots in the Guelph, Ontario DIY scene, where she learned to be “loud, assertive, and unabashedly scrappy” in outfits like Esther Grey and Cupcake Ductape. A startling evolution of her lush sonic palette, the Moonlit Building EP further bends Cots’s spare and beautiful sound with a reshuffling of a Disturbing Body centerpiece “Flowers (Fresh Cut)” and the celestial lounge sound of “Devil Does.”

STREAM & BUY “MOONLIT BUILDING” HERE

Cots performs solo opening for The Rheostatics at the Legendary Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto on November 25. More Ontario dates below. 

ALBUM ARTWORK // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

MOONLIT BUILDING TRACKLIST
1. Moonlit Building
2. Flowers (Fresh Cut)
3. Devil Does
4. The Woman With No Face
5. No Way No How

PRESS PHOTO // Matthew Cardinal - DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

Praise for Disturbing Body:

“A meditation on loneliness and the complexities of the heart, a secret told from Cots to you only.” - CBC Music

"Cots leans into gentleness” - Exclaim!

"Closeness and intimacy shine through" - The Line of Best Fit

“Brilliant debut album” - Bandcamp

"Nocturnal, pensive, and melancholic" - Atwood

TOUR DATES:
Nov 25 - Toronto ON - Legendary Horseshoe Tavern w/ The Rheostatics
Nov 26 - Kitchener ON - The Yeti w/ Ein Sof

COTS ONLINE
WEBSITE
INSTAGRAM
FACEBOOK
BANDCAMP