Kuinka Return with a New Celebratory Electrofunk Sound on “Wet Cement” (premiere)

Blending a beguiling mix of Americana, dream pop and straight up indie rock, genre defying Seattle foursome Kuinka return with their first new music since last year’s excellent Stay Up Late EP.

New single “Wet Cement” plays down the band’s overtly folk influences and replaces them with the celebratory, electro-funk sound of classic Prince. A fluid bassline, doubled by Jillian Walker’s smooth cello playing sets the tone as the track quickly locks into a late summer groove. Coupled with washes of neon synths and punchy snares, the band frame Miranda Zickler’s glorious, soulful harmonies in hazy sunshine, like a postcard of a deserted beach.

Lyrically, the song explores why we so often choose to tyrannize ourselves with a constant desire to move on and find something better as Zickler explains. “‘Wet Cement’ is our late summer lament to being oppressed by the promise of something better just on the other side of where you are: a relationship, a job, a home, or a neighborhood dive bar leveled to make room for a luxury apartment building.”

As Zickler warns, by trying to eclipse ourselves we run the risk of finding that all that glitters is not gold. “We imagined a loss of love as a process of reconstruction: at best leaving behind what you no longer need to build something better, at worst a gentrification of an already beautiful thing for the sake of a shiny new idea.”