{"id":19859,"date":"2026-05-06T11:58:42","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T16:58:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/?p=19859"},"modified":"2026-05-06T11:58:44","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T16:58:44","slug":"starly-kind-inferno-xe-xem-ep-explores-the-intricacies-of-gender-through-the-liminal-hellscape-of-esoteric-symbolism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/?p=19859","title":{"rendered":"STARLY KIND “Inferno: Xe\/Xem” EP explores the intricacies of gender through the liminal hellscape of esoteric symbolism"},"content":{"rendered":"
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photo credit Alice Ruffo<\/p>\n\n\n\n

S\u00e3o Paulo, Brazil — In that liminal space between dreams and nightmares resides STARLY KIND. There, the project\u2019s mastermind, Starly Lou Riggs, presides over a hellscape infested with demonic symbolism, esoteric childhood lore, intrepid pan-genre explorations, stuffed animals, chains, spikes, and white lace. Within this self-stylized perdition, they explore the intricacies of gender in relation to societal pressures, feeling monstrous in the wake of structured gender roles and expectations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen you realize you\u2019re queer later in life, you can fall back into childhood because you lost a lot of time feeling like you didn\u2019t fit in,\u201d says the S\u00e3o Paulo-based artist. \u201cStarly Kind is an alter ego, collecting all the little pieces of my childhood, uplifting queer and fem people, and dismantling binaries. I\u2019m non-binary in everything\u2014you can\u2019t put me in a box.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Starly Kind is releasing their CorpoRAT Records debut, Inferno: (Xe\/Xem), on May 8th, 2026. The six-song EP will be available for streaming and physically as a limited run on cassette, CD, and vinyl, including lathe cuts for the singles, \u201cStarly Kind\u201d and \u201cDemon Dreams,\u201d with screen-printed art on the B-side. Starly co-produced Inferno: (Xe\/Xem) alongside their partner, Leo Fazio, who also played bass on all the tracks save \u201cDemon Dreams.\u201d Piano was performed by Matheus Vieira, and Inferno: (Xe\/Xem) was mixed and mastered at Veredas \u00c1udio in S\u00e3o Paulo by engineer Iran Ribas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

tarly Kind is the culmination of Riggs as a multi-hyphenate creative: a songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, journalist, visual artist, among other things. To date, Starly Kind has released a pair of singles and a live EP, and performed throughout Brazil and Portland, Oregon where they lived previously, then playing in the doom-y griefgaze band, Death Parade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Starly Kind invites comparisons to King Woman, Chelsea Wolfe, Nuvolascura, and yeule. Riggs\u2019s songs are adventurous collage art, flirting with but never committing to emo, punk, doom, screamo, shoegaze, new glitch, jazz, Brazilian music, and haunting David Lynch-esque cinematic musicality. These tracks are thrilling sojourns through challenging odd time signatures, startling dynamic shifts, and dense textural passages featuring clarinet, flute, and distressed samples. They are frightening, empowering, and oddly comforting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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