Before Sean Brutus and Bailey Crone met, their respective sounds are already poles apart. Sean is mainly a folk aficionado and has been making waves with his solo project, Big Brutus, while Bailey is a dream pop geek better known as Bathe Alone. On the face of it, their glaring incompatibility indeed doesn’t at all hint of any potential collaborative musical engagement—until Mango Cat happened.
Back in 2018, singer-songwriter Brutus was looking for band members for his project and in the process came across Crone’s SoundCloud page. He was immediately impressed by the latter’s self-produced soundscapes, most particularly the instrumental song “Hello Today“. Thus, in an effort to spark a conversation and establish rapport, Brutus sent Crone an entire vocal and guitar recording of himself complementing the track. And the rest is history.
In their own words, it was like a “Hey, you’re cool. Let’s make some tunes” moment, which up to now still holds true.
This year the Atlanta-based duo officially embarked on a release spree, dropping every three weeks singles off of their much-awaited self-titled debut. Their latest offering, “Rose”, exposes Brutus and Crone’s knack for spacious, reverb-laden sound sprinkled with indie rock granules. It sees the two play around their natural tastes, basking in dreamy folk-pop textures and experimental, pseudo-psychedelic edges.
“‘Rose’ is a folk pop song about running into an ex at a party,” they wrote in a statement. “That shit is such a downer.” With Brutus crooning stagnantly atop an ambient orchestration of delicate guitars and percussion that tacitly flare up towards the end, such a description is not only beyond spot-on, it’s almost unnecessary. Mango Cat are this true to their craft.
Stream “Rose” below.
Sam is a mediocre artist, musician, and the founder and editor in chief of UNXIGNED. He is a Juris Doctor who leads an excitingly boring life in the confines of his room juggling studies with passion and dreams. He is terrible at finding balance but gets by anyhow. He wants you to follow his artist pages and channels for when he decides to up his game. Pretty open for collabs and will mix your would-be hit song for cheap.
