Welcome to In Tune with WBMB, a weekly column where a member of the station covers a new track from the underground. This week’s article is written by Mishel Dutan.
By the time young girls flourish into women, they have endless anecdotes about creepy men they encounter on the subway. Argentinian electronic duo EQ, consisting of Estratosfera and Qiri, bond with listeners over these uncomfortable moments in “Subway Lullaby,” the fourth track on their eponymous debut EP.
Estratosfera, whose real name is Laura Ferreira, is a 22-year-old artist based in Buenos Aires. In her childhood, she studied classical piano and guitar and was later influenced by emo culture in her teen years, leading her to join the alternative band Saramalacara on the guitar.
She met Qiri, whose real name is Candela Mattera, through mutual friends in the art and music scene in Buenos Aires. Before the formation of EQ, Mattera studied music and nearly completed a degree in Sound Design and Composition with Electroacoustic Music.
United by their love for electronic music and displeased with the lack of female producers in their circle, the artists joined forces in 2023. A loop of the Windows dial-up sound effect is accompanied by exasperated panting at the beginning of the track. Mattera sings about an all-too-familiar scene: jumping over the metal turnstile and emerging from the underground into the streets.
Perhaps she ran out of breath because she had to evade a stranger’s leering eyes. “I see a man that looks at me/He undresses me with his eyes, it makes my stomach turn,” she sings.
The second verse begins with a disgusted “Ugh,” which sets the tone for the rest of the verse. The singers take turns expressing their repulsion in a defiant tone. While Mattera sings about how she wants to spit at men, Ferreira expresses her anger and desire to punch them. It is reminiscent of how girls empathize with each other after sharing their experiences.
Ferreira’s vocals in particular bear a resemblance to Yves Tumor’s amped-up style. They match, perhaps even battle, with the rowdy soundscape of the layered instrumental. There are beaming synths, the deep hum of bass, Mattera’s glitchy vocals, guitar strumming that seldom appears and eccentric sound effects. They evoke the overwhelming experience of a bustling crowd on the train and the city that waits outside.
The girls’ fear culminates in the fourth verse, in which they imagine men in suits carrying guns. A man in a suit can signify authority, and the gun could be a metaphor for the power that he has over them. This is when Ferreira’s vocals get turned up a notch.
At the bridge, she belts, “Think of the lullaby/ My mother sang.” People find solace in familiarity, in the soothing voice of their mother easing guttural cries in their childhood. The sputtering drums and gritty bass are the propulsive drive that rides out the loud, cathartic singing.
The inclusion of non-musical sounds makes this track unique. A blaring train alarm is woven into the fabric of this song, which simulates the anxiety one feels when being harassed on public transport and the helplessness that follows.
The producers sampled and looped the dial-up sound effect from an early 2000s Windows computer. It resembles the urgency to call a loved one for comfort with no mobile connection to do so.
EQ advised their listeners to blow their speakers up if they feel like life is crushing them. It is a cheeky way of driving the point home; this heavily layered song with powerful imagery is meant to be an outlet for the anxiety stemming from situations that are out of people’s control.
