If the internet is forever, then Madge intends to stick around with “Ethanol”

Ethanol cannot be consumed. Drink it in its pure state and risk death. Yet, when diluted and distilled to form the alcoholic base for a majority of our favourite beverages, it can evoke pleasure, cure pain, and has the ability to augment the mood of whoever chooses to imbibe.

Following previous single “Headshot”, “Ethanol” is the latest track released by non-binary American artist Madge and it responds to the multiple emotions and reactions that such an elixir may conjure. The result is a cleverly produced pop track which is precariously placed within the liminal void between pleasure and pain.

Created alongside Lecx Stacey and mixed by Chance Lewis, the team employ the digital manufacturing of pop to distort and crush Madge’s vocals; their words manage to seep through the track, weaving in and around the other digitised instruments in order to create a pixelated collage of sound. Each contrasting moment is welded together to form a piece of futuristic pop which even Vroom Vroom-era Charli XCX would be jealous of.

This warped, computerised, anti-mainstream bop proves yet again that Madge’s sound is truly unique, refusing to compromise their own artistic identity. But what is an identity if it is not a mixture of ideas an influences? Madge makes music which reflects on this idea of a refracted ‘self’ and the multiple personalities we adopt in order to create this.

Their work responds to societal and personal disorder as they state that “for every garbage fire I put out in my brain, I find myself dumping gasoline on another. I find myself wondering if I just accept this state of things”. As their latest track, “Ethanol” reflects upon various concepts and emotions that are ripped up, burnt, and then chaotically pieced back together; it takes us through the inside of a brain which is anything but stagnant.