uppers

Uppers forms the second half of the Downers/Uppers pair, but it was approached in a more deliberate way. Where Downers came together from a selection of separate tracks that happened to fit well, Uppers feels more designed as its own EP. Even though it is very short, it holds together more clearly as one release rather than as a sample of a broader period.

The core of Uppers lies in In the salvia spire and suicide. Those tracks were originally made for what much later became Nuke In Transit, though that project did not yet have a name at the time. Even then, they already felt like too much of a stylistic break to remain there. Pulling them away from that material and treating them as something separate is what eventually led to Uppers taking shape.

That difference is part of what makes the release feel more complete than Downers. The tracks are more complex, more closely related to one another, and less open in their influences. There is less of the pop logic and less of the jazz-influenced looseness that still appears in parts of Downers. The result is a release that feels more concentrated, more inward, and more coherent in its own mood.

The atmosphere of Uppers is harder to place directly, but it carries a kind of estrangement and unusual melancholy that feels central to it. That quality runs through the EP more consistently than on Downers, and gives the release a stronger identity despite its length. It feels more self-contained, and more shaped around a particular state.

Doomed originally belonged closer to Downers, and that is still somewhat audible in its style, but when Uppers was being assembled it still made sense to include it. Looming and withering away in a digital sunset, on the other hand, were made specifically for this release. Looming was also much longer at first, but was later cut down so that the release would keep moving until the ambient outro of the final track. Doomed originally existed in 4/4 before being changed into 5/4.

Uppers is still closely tied to Downers, but it is not simply its counterpart. Downers sets out more of the ground, while Uppers pulls further into one particular space and becomes more focused there. That is what gives it the stronger sense of being a complete EP, even while remaining one of the shortest releases in the catalogue.

The cover comes from a heavily processed macro photo of a fly. Unlike Downers, there are no alternate covers for this release, though there is some short moving-image material connected to it.

Text written in May 2026.