The first Mad Girl’s Moral Disorder single is out now on streaming services, with “Quercus” introducing a new trio featuring Keenan and Tanya Kinnear alongside Jethro Vlag.
For anyone who knows Keenan Kinnear from South Africa’s Acid Magus, this is a new lane, but not a disconnected one. In the band’s own words, Mad Girl’s Moral Disorder “began as a fun thing to do and ultimately became a societal and artistic imperative.” They describe the project as “a take on alternative rock/metal sub genres,” bringing together alt rock, metal, heavy psych rock, doom metal, grunge, punk and stoner rock. More importantly, they frame it around something clear: “The project embodies the female experience, drawing parallels with qualities pertaining to nature, where creation is violent and survival is sacred.”
“Quercus” sounds like an opening statement because that is exactly what it is. The band call it “a recollection, both violent and beautiful, intoxicated by the self and no longer in control.” They also describe it as “an ode to a swan song,” adding that it starts the album by throwing the listener in straight away, “with very little time to think and breathe.”
The visual side is being built with the same intent. Writing about the single artwork, Tyrone says he wanted it to lean into birth “in all of its horrific and beautiful glory.” Because “Quercus” opens the album, he saw the first single as the start of its “gestation” period, depicting “the blastocyst stage, a new life form pulsing and growing from within the thick tree sap struggling to burst free from a tree.”
There is still a full album to come, but “Quercus” already gives the project a solid shape.
