"I’ve been lonely / I’ve been lonesome / I’ve been alone / Then I got some..."
The comely industrial dance punk throttle and abstract art pop prowess of "Compliment" (Official Video) by Rare DM, the experimental art project of NYC based synthesist, songwriter, visual / sonic world builder Erin Hoagg, bears repeated viewings, preferably on a big screen with a proper sound system. I say this because there simply is a whole lot of bewonderment going on and like any great art piece you will not be able to swallow all of it at one sitting. It also feels, is a singular piece of art, that is to say while the song might be a wonderful aural consideration, it is the blood coursing through the video but you need that flesh and blood, you need it all. It would be like watching the Wizard of Oz with the sound off or just listening to the audio portion of the film. Why did the Wizard of Oz come to mind, well, maybe because when you experience Hoagg's fully realized "Compliment", you will also say something to the effect of "We're not in Kansas anymore".
"Compliment" (song and video) as realized by Hoagg and director Lisa Saeboe is so entrancing. There are sections of the video that feel birthed from turn of the century German expressionism, dramatic sets, high angles, bountiful use of chiaroscuro, mirrored images and a sort of zoetrope-pic set piece that is so utterly artful and dramatic. I could go on but will not as any description would not do what you experience justice. One thing is for sure, Hoagg herself is an art piece in terms of her look, her visual style though and through and I can only assume that she is a directors dream. Sonically, the thwack of the beat against the obviously bottom thick kick is such a lovely nuanced approach and the way Hoagg's vocal layers are expressed both as a back of the room sound and more upfront cuts through the interweaving synth orchestrations. Her vocal sound runs the artful gamut of haunted, detached and celebratory.
-Robb Donker Curtius
Rare DM announces her new LP 'Attention' with lead-single "Compliment" & stunning video! "
Important LINER NOTES (excerpted / bracketed):
ON the song and video:
[It explores the confusing validation of being flirted with while in a relationship, vocals shifting between abruptness and delicacy over a choppy dance beat. Accompanied by an otherworldy video directed by Lisa Saeboe and edited by Hoagg, this is a mesmerizing introduction to Attention's sexy, enveloping world.
On the single, Rare DM shares: “'Compliment' started with writing lyrics with my Juno 60, using twisting bouncy arpeggiators and chopping up my original vocals into rhythmic stabs.
It is inspired by when you are in a relationship, and someone who you had eyes for (before meeting your s/o) suddenly pays attention to you. I was sent a suggestive message from someone, and wasn't single anymore. As the lyrics share: 'don’t you worry about it for a second, I can take a compliment' because hey, I don’t want them to feel embarrassed or bad, they didn’t know that I met someone! This all being said… I can’t control if they are thinking of me. 'You can’t have it… but you can imagine it'"
On the video, director Lisa Saeboe expands: "I wanted "Compliment" to feel like a surrealist journey through the unconscious, utilizing mirrors, repetition, and portals to create a simulacra of modern day loneliness and desire.
"Compliment'" is also a love letter to artists that have helped shape my own visual language. We start the video with a reference to the Rokeby Venus by Diego Velásquez, the dreamy beach landscape inspired by experimental filmmaker Maya Deren, followed by Caravaggio’s Narcissus gazing into the pool, and of course the multiple echoes or Rare DM ascending the stairs à la Eadweard Muybridge. I’ve always thought of Rare DM as Man Ray’s ideal muse, whose work also helped establish the tone for the video."]
The Chicken Wheel will take you to the AP Go Fund Me- and any amount is so appreciated!
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
https://soundcloud.com/rare_dm
https://www.youtube.com/c/RareDM
https://www.instagram.com/rare_dm_/
https://www.tiktok.com/@rare_dm_
https://www.facebook.com/rare.dm.realm
https://x.com/rare_dm_
https://music.apple.com/us/artist/rare-dm/1306121178
Erin Hoagg’s Rare DM is a fully realized audiovisual world: Moody, pulsing, and meticulously constructed. Analog synthesizers throb beneath surreal depictions of the mundane. With a midnight love for the avant-garde, Hoagg dons the glamour of art deco with a fondness for vintage suiting, H.R. Giger, Akira, and fantasy novels. Rare DM seeks solace in the otherworldly, obscured in her enigmatic stage presence. As a trained swing dancer, a glimmer of proclivity for the 1920’s and 30’s shines through — also evident via Hoagg’s signature platinum bob; a “vidal sassoon” take on the flapper era style.
With tours spanning across North America, Europe, and Mexico, Rare DM has showcased her immersive DAW-less performance alongside artists including Molchat Doma, Model/Actriz, Xeno & Oaklander, Mareux, and Drab Majesty. Festival appearances include Substance (Los Angeles), Flesh & Steel (New York), South by Southwest (Austin), Coldwaves (Chicago), Verboden (Vancouver), Grauzone (Den Haag), and Black Factory (Kyiv). Stereogum dubbed Rare DM “show-stopping,” while PAPER Magazine praised the viral single “Send Nudes” as “strangely somber yet scintillating.” The track is paired with Hoagg’s self-directed, bike-riding visual that became an early breakout moment — her deadpan, yet kinetic sensuality contrasting the sparsely-populated early days of the COVID pandemic in New York City.
Born in Baltimore to fine artist parents, and later relocating to Manhattan to study fashion design, Hoagg’s foundation in visual art is inseparable from her sound. Approaching Rare DM as an all encompassing art project, Hoagg fuses music, image, styling, movement, and narrative into a cohesive mythology. Neon-streaked, retrofuturistic, dreamlike, often eerie and emotionally charged — her iconography is as deliberate as the compositions. For every video, a new world is conjured up before the first frame is even shot. As a director and editor, she sculpts with a meticulous eye, commanding light, texture, and pacing with the same precision she brings to the studio.
The mastery of synthesis is central to Rare DM’s identity. As a producer and multi-instrumentalist, Hoagg composes with her home studio as her catalyst: Sculpting rumbling basslines, metallic pulses, cascading arpeggiators, and machine-driven beats from a trove of analog gear. Her hardware synths and drum machines are curated and scavenged from the streets of New York, haggled for in the depths of Craigslist and further reaches of the internet. The result is tactile and enveloping: Machines distort and shimmer like living circuitry. Sketches begin in solitude and are refined in motion — on tour, in transit, on bike rides — lending a sense of propulsion and immediacy.
Hoagg makes her true motion picture debut in The Bride!, directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal, as the synth player for Fever Ray. The Mary Shelley inspired film, starring Christian Bale and Jessie Buckley, hits theaters March 6th. The appearance marks a natural expansion for Rare DM from underground spaces to the silver screen.
Rare DM’s second full-length, Attention, leans fully into spectacle and seduction. Where Hoagg’s debut, Vanta Black, lingered in heartbreak, Attention is kinetic and self-aware — an exploration of lust, performance, and ego. The title nods to both scrutiny and precision: A meditation on being watched, and on watching closely.
“Compliment” surges with electric tension before detonating into a pummeling peak. “Skater Hits Me Harder” reframes adolescent memory through adult desire. “Honey” and “Landed” drift through luminous atmospheres, their glowing synths and weightless rhythms unfolding with a sense of quiet momentum. “Significant Other” is an instrumental that explores Hoagg’s darker sonic terrain while showcasing her technical command. On “325,” an homage to the titular BMW E30, undulating bass propels a fantasy of escape. “LA Traffic” answers gridlock with techno-laced urgency. Recurring automotive imagery explores the friction between acceleration and stagnation. Throughout, engines rev, lights streak, and tunnels blur. Motion manifests as metaphor.
With Rare DM, Hoagg designs her world through light and sound, layering vivid textures that feel almost tangible in their flow. Attention expands her universe while keeping its core intact: analog, neon-lit, and humming with intention. Beneath the glow runs a darker current, where shadowy tones and hypnotic rhythms lure the listener onto the dancefloor, which Hoagg weaves into her magnetic live sets. Attention arrives worldwide, May 29, 2026.
Rare DM, singer-songwriter, visual artist, performance artist, synth pop, alt pop, experimental pop, post punk, art pop, art punk, industrial, dance pop, new album "Attention", darkwave, "Compliment" (Official Video),
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