Since their debut, Pecq has been on a creative roll, releasing a string of EPs including Stranger (2021), Brittle (2022), and Amnesia’s Ritual (2023). Their latest offering, “stronger,” is far from your typical break-up anthem. Instead, it’s a glitchy, twisting pop track that serves as a powerful mantra for reclaiming one’s body in the face of health challenges.

Jacobs explains the inspiration behind “stronger”: “I live with a bunch of immune conditions and when I’m down about being super sick I do this silly, sassy pep talk, hyping myself up to fight my body. The lyrics are all the opposite to how it feels but the more I repeat that I’m stronger than this, the more I eventually feel it.”

Oxford’s psych-synth duo pecq return with the follow up single to “Stranger”. This new offering sees Hannah (Jakes) Jacob and Nikò O’Brien ruminate over unhealthy habits, breaking the cycle of returning to toxic environments and relationships. This is the second track lifted from their debut EP Stranger out.

Of the track, Jakes commented “”Killing Time” is about making the same mistakes over and over – dying relationships I kept going back to, destructive habits I can’t break. I’m a big one for drastic changes and breaking with the past but so many times I end up back where I started – burn it down and build it just the same.”

This meaning is reflected in the syncopated, off kilter electro-kalimba (yes, really) that seems to bring to life this echo chamber. There’s a delightful sense of uneasy repetition to the song, one that is both comforting and puts you on edge. Much like the perceived safety of returning to a relationship where you already know the person, the soundscape mirrors back the song’s meaning and amplifies the warning. Just because something seems familiar and routine, does not mean it’s good for you or your personal growth.

Centred around sparse, interlocking drum patterns and resonating synths, the crescendo in “Killing Time” comes just before the three minute mark. With Jakes’s continued assertion to “burn it down” orchestrating the explosive final minute, we hear the music truly ignite too during this crystal clear climax. In this final chorus, Jakes’s honey sweet voice is joined by a whole choir of pal vocalists.

The video accompaniment, directed by Ross Harrison, sees O’Brien truly “Killing Time,” playing with an assortment of retro time passing toys. His frustration grows until he too, snaps and begins destroying the toys.

After the abysmal year that was 2020, can you blame people for wanting to shed their skin and make way for the new? That’s exactly what Nikò O’Brien and Hannah (Jakes) Jacobs have done, after having linked with another project in the past. Today, we’re excited to premiere “Stranger,” their debut track as pecq.

The new project combines the duo’s love of jazz, alt-pop and experimental electronic dance music as well as retaining the musical chemistry that makes multi-instrumentalist and producer duo O’Brien (drums/electronics) and Jacobs (synth/vocals) so multi-faceted and their music so gorgeously synchronised.

With its warped synths and unrelenting yet groovy drum beat, “Stranger” marks an auspicious welcome back to the pair. Textured and breezy, the track hinges around O’Brien’s thrumming drum work and Jakes’s featherlight vocals, dancing across the top. The hazy and funky track is taken from their debut EP, Stranger, to be released this summer.

About the track, Jakes stated: “‘Stranger’ is about losing myself somewhere between past and present. Events, traumas or lies send us far away from a past self, but when you finally arrive somewhere new you can’t recognise yourself there either. The song for me is being stuck in a ghostly limbo disco haunted by memories of an unreachable past.”

The visual for the track directed by Ross Harrison echoes this sentiment. We see Jakes moving in an almost directionless way, yet with an odd intent. It’s almost like she’s being pulled unwittingly towards something unseen or inexpressible. Ending on an eerie shot of Jakes joining an ensemble of motionless and inanimate people gathered under a motorway pass, the video is both unsettling and weirdly exciting.

Watch pecq‘s video premiere below, and stream “Stranger” tomorrow on their Spotify.