Pain Gain [Forest Green], Pain Gain, Vinyl

Pain Gain is the sound of a left turn that became a calling. In 2023, the supergroup trio of Chloe Kaul (Kllo), Hamish Lefevre (SWIM), and Samuel Cooke (CRUSH3d) each shed an electronica persona as they loaded a car with guitars, modular synths, and a tape recorder for a weeklong hideaway in the woods. What came from those sessions was an album that none of them could have expected, but one they were always meant to make. Their debut, Pain Gain - named for the concept of finding clarity only after digging through the dirt as much as it is self-titled - trades velocity for gravity. The record shrugs off genre as a useful fiction: weaving into indie rock melodrama and out through exalting pop balladry, it's ten tracks are a study in personal upheaval. And while vocalist Chloe Kaul's at-times-excoriating lyrics dig and pick at the soul, there is a balance within the band's music where no single voice dominates, and each member presses their weight of emotion into the frame.