"The night you were lost to / The cold air I stood there / I grew wings the blue spring / Was shriveling then gone..."
The tightly wound emotional grooves of "Perfect Reach", by Brooklyn-based singer, songwriter, and artist Otracami, aka Camila Ortiz, and from her sophomore album "Runoff", might just put you in a dream state, so deeply that when you come out of it you might actually be in a different physical state (assuming you are wearing ear buds while someone else is behind the wheel). I have had the pleasure of covering a few other Otracami tracks, some from this same album and it is quite apparent how diverse her sonic expressions all are in terms of the way she paints, some maybe a sonic Renoir, some a Kahlo, some a Haring and maybe "Perfect Reach" is a Remedios Varo. The unwinding bits of folk, progressive indie, post punk saturated with dream theatricality and introspective psychedelia feels perfect for Ortiz's vocal spirit and songwriting that, of course, is the connective tissue that runs throughout all her songs.
In the end, maybe "Perfect Reach" is a sonic mirror. I mean, there is a sense of 90's Radiohead but also a sense of mid 80's Cocteau Twins, with tentacles that might be reaching out to This Mortal Coil and 10,000 Maniacs. And, how fucking cool, impactful is that. I guess it is how you look at it and what is looking back.
-Robb Donker Curtius
LINER NOTES (excerpted / bracketed):
Otracami aka Camila Ortiz shares:
[It was deep winter and I was taking the Adrianne Lenker's School of Song class and that's where that came from. She had this class where she was literally like ‘steal a picking pattern from me' and write a song with that. It was really fun to write, and I was also reading this crazy book Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez which is this dark epic fantasy about the Argentine dictatorship in the '70s and '80s. I feel like I was kind of in that zone mentally - everything's kind of haunted and scary. Inspired by Adrianne Lenker in that class, I was also writing in a way that was less directly narrative and more vibes-based, using images, feelings, textures. Then a pretty clear idea emerged from that still - thinking about somebody and being like 'you're over there and I messed up, how I get you back over here?' but then being like 'that's not a good idea actually I don't want that'. And I think maybe feeling kind of villainous - that entered that song too.The song is about circling back to the other place - when it's so dead of winter, things just need to play out in your head in a really full way. And that other place can be scary too. Things feel so stuck that you start building out another dimension and playing things out there.]
LYRICS
Perfect when I’m lying
Broken bottle sighing slick and burning inside
I open
Tell you twice I know it
Sacrifice I blow it so I cut the lights
And lean
Out into the other place
I lean
Perfect when I’m eyeing
Rising steam and prying melted pieces apart
Still frozen
Barely there but knowing
Lingering and growing so I couldn’t be far
I’m seeking
You in the other place
I seek
Perfect when you’re tying
Holding me in place cause I don’t know when to stop
I’m shaking
And wishing like a fever
Blistered blue believer burning holes in the dark
Straining my arms I couldn’t be far I reach
For you in the other place
I reach
I’m keeping you in the other place
I keep
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
https://www.instagram.com/_otracami_
https://www.tiktok.com/@_otracami_
Otracami is a songwriter and artist based in New York.
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