Beatriz de Rijke is a Dutch-British audio-visual artist that makes music as BEA1991. She's prolific and sporadic with her releases, but she has a new song out today called "Tummy Bug."
With minimal production, "Tummy Bug" is a haunting sigh. There's a soft echo and the eased, jazzy drums that support most of the track seem tired, like they're ready to lie down for a nap. The focal point of "Tummy Bug" is de Rijke's varied vocals that shift between tones of resilience and an operatic ache. "Falling over center stage, I'm relieved to be alive/ But damn they're letting bitches die," she sings on the first verse. "Tummy Bug" balances a tension of gratefulness and fury with injustice: "They've been giving me so much bullshit/ I'm somebody, not a number." BEA1991 captures the isolating and enraging experience of dehumanized pain.
In a Bandcamp message accompanying the song's release, BEA1991 shared:
Tummy Bug is here for you.
She is a song about women's reproductive health being dismissed in medical science and society at large, about the heartbreak, physical pain and loneliness this causes worldwide, and about how in the future, it must and will be different.
Thank you for touching in.
<3, Bea
Listen to "Tummy Bug" below.
