Very little is known about Denver pop newcomer CERVAL, but if their debut single, “Unavailable” provides any insight, it’s that he didn’t come to play games. The drugged-out self-produced song, mixed by Shuta Shinoda (Hot Chip, Bath Full of Ecstasy) wobbles in a disconcerting haze of IRL fantasies before breaking into four-on-the-floor propulsion that drags you down a rabbit hole of R&B harmonies and increasing urgency and depth. It’s dance music as only the apocalypse can imagine. Volleying between grungy UK Garage and an almost moombahton sounding chorus, “Unavailable” is the soundtrack to a night gone awry.
One for few words, CERVAL had this to say of the song, “Unavailable is a pitfall. It grips you and escalates an avoidable situation by questioning who’s in control. It is a song about emotional urgency and wanting to the point of mutually assured destruction.” Adding, “’Unavailable’ was born from a breakdown, knee-deep in a quarantine where all the pieces had fallen apart, I was suddenly tasked with piecing them together, coping with the fallout or letting it consume me — I’ll let you guess which direction this song resulted from.”
“Unavailable” is the first taste of CERVAL’s musical output in anticipation of his debut EP coming this fall.