12.11.2023

Uxile on Uxile—”Double Stretch My Soul”

Uxile shares “Double Stretch My Soul“, the first single of his upcoming album Vapors Unfold. Out on Unguarded [the label was featured in issue #26 of our print magazine] on November 24, the album marks his debut under the Uxile moniker. „Double Stretch My Soul“ is carried by a carpet of vocals and a harpy arpeggio sample lent from labelmate Aeondelit. It gives the feeling of constantly falling apart while the track gains strength in the low-end, mutating into a somewhat over-compressed outro. The track starts with a flexed voice that states it can’t burn out: by doing so, the red thread of the album is unveiled from the get-go. In the following, we premiere the track and Uxile uses this opportunity to express what’s been on his mind.

I constantly find myself in situations where I think I can’t do it. Sometimes, my plans may be a bit too ambitious, or I want to do too much at once. And in the process, I realize that I’m actually stumbling along and paddling rather than having a clear plan for how to implement things. At the same time, things often happen that I would never have imagined, exceeding my expectations. So, I take a detour, involve others as much as I can, and end up somewhere unexpected. The most interesting thing about this approach, where I often don’t know if what I’m doing even makes sense, is the feeling that my toolbox is constantly growing. This applies to music, visual arts, or how one can contribute to a scene. I’m trying to move forward somehow without exhausting myself too much. I can only do this because my network of people who either participate in my music or allow me to participate in their projects, as well as the community in and around Unguarded. We try supporting each other in a way that allows for forward thinking.

This includes people like Dounia Biedermann, whose input holds Unguarded together and pushes it forward, as well as those who come to our shows and make up the community.

With “Double Stretch My Soul“, and by extension Vapors Unfold, I wanted to explore the theme of exhaustion—that extra step where someone takes me by the hand, and the insights gained from the thousand detours that often serve as a starting point for what follows. The idea of never really reaching a conclusion can be overwhelming on one hand, but on the other hand, it becomes a source of motivation.

Throughout the genesis of the album, Tim Roth aka Sin Maldita ensured that I kept going every time I got caught up in details. Similarly, when I become self-indulgent, he is direct and tells me when something is just plain boring. Tim mixed the album and had his hand in everything. “Double Stretch My Soul” was originally intended to be a club track that I prepared for a set at OHM in Berlin. After the night at OHM, I continued to work on it obsessively. I spent a few hours on the train with Agnese Menguzzato, incorporating a sample from Aeondelit and a vocal sample from Old Grape God from another track in a way that completely transformed the core of the song. “Double Stretch My Soul” stumbles along, much like myself, a bit on the edge, but mostly relaxed.