WAR GARDEN

BY COLD BEAT

Released 9/17/21

Combining stark post-punk instrumentation, lush melodies, and abstract yet vivid songwriting, Cold Beat is the project of singer/songwriter/bassist Hannah Lew. From the beginning, Cold Beat dove into big-picture topics: On 2014's Over Me, she explored the death of her father and loss in general on compact, driving songs that harked back to the heyday of , , and (whose song "Cold Beat" gave Lew's project its name). The changing face of her hometown San Francisco in the wake of tech companies' success informed 2015's Into the Air, which added jangly indie pop, Motorik, and minimal synth experiments to Lew's repertoire. The electronic elements of Cold Beat's music only grew as the years passed, with 2020's Mother reflecting the influence of -- as well as Lew's own motherhood -- on its polished, expansive meditations.