abracadabra- peel away

Pre-order out 7th August

Melodic Limited CD Release #1
-The first edition of the Melodic Limited CD Release series
-Hand stamped and numbered on greyboard digipack
-With printed art and fold out zine.
-Limited to 50 copies

Digital EP 
-Digital Download

If shapes & colors invited listeners into abracadabra’s vibrant neighbourhood of hope and resistance, peel away opens the front door and welcomes them directly into the conversation. The Oakland duo’s new EP is their most intimate collection yet: six songs that sift through luck, privilege, repair, abundance, anger, and self-reflection, wrapped in the project’s signature blend of psych-pop, leftfield electronics, dubby grooves, and playful sonic experimentation.

peel away continues abracadabra's fascination with texture, movement, and groove. Angular synth lines, dub-inflected rhythms, playful percussion, and layered vocal arrangements create a world that feels simultaneously homemade and expansive. There are echoes of Talking Heads, ESG, Tom Tom Club, Stereolab, and Arthur Russell in the mix, but abracadabra's greatest strength remains their ability to turn complex ideas into joyful communal experiences.

At the centre of abracadabra are Hannah Skelton (vocals, synthesizers) and Chris Niles (bass, synthesizers), whose songwriting process often begins with melodies that arrive carrying hidden messages. "I've found information which arrives this way proves to be extremely sticky," says Skelton. "More or less impossible to pull apart from the song once it has revealed itself. I've also come to think it holds little clues. Like riddles from my subconscious." The songs on Peel Away emerged from following those clues wherever they led.

That same spirit of self-examination drives lead single "face card," which questions the myth of self-made success. "'face card' asks the question: do you really think you earned all you've got by yourself, and that you should keep it all for yourself?" says Skelton. "What if those of us who received such fateful benevolence schemed about a way to bring it to a larger scale? Let's grow a lush world together."

Elsewhere, the EP balances critique with imagination. "see-saw" transforms the rhythms of modern labour into a hypnotic mechanical groove, while "into the pail" channels environmental grief and political frustration into catharsis. The bittersweet “ice cream" uses one of life's simplest pleasures to explore inequality and abundance. "I'd imagine abundance mindset feels a lot like an ice cream cone in the summer," says Skelton.
For all its political and philosophical themes, peel away remains deeply human. Closing track ‘go fix yourself’ embraces the endless cycle of mistakes, repair, and self-improvement with humour and empathy. "Let's be real — isn't everyone always slipping up in various ways?" says Skelton. "Normalize apologizing. This is human life on planet Earth, after all, and it's messy."

Warm, curious, and quietly radical, peel away finds abracadabra asking difficult questions while holding firmly onto hope. As Skelton puts it: "I'd sure love to look around me and see a bunch of thriving humans, wouldn't you?"