(Self-released, CD, digital)
There’s a whiff of the apocalypse to Dim Halo, the new record from Repelican, the solo project of singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Jon Ehrens. The album kicks off with one of the more frustrated laments over technological dystopia in recent memory, “Cloud Gets Full.”
“It was tough to grow up in a different age, when to live was to be a doer,” Ehrens sings over a maelstrom of big guitars and swooping bass. “Where there’s things to build and food to create/You had to learn it from each other.”
That Britpop-leaning slice of indie rock segues into the washed-out electro-bop of “Happily Distracted,” a pop song smuggled inside squalls of distortion and a driving, almost surfy bass line. The album’s first two tracks bear little resemblance to one another, a theme of sorts that underpins Dim Halo.
It’s a cliché to call a musician eclectic, but Ehrens is cooking from an encyclopedic menu. He not only pulls ingredients from many genres but is also able to blend them into any sonic flavor he desires. He displays this on the record as “Another One,” an ambient-leaning track full of space and icy synths, segues into the ELO-like indie-country rocker, “Saw Beyond the End.” Somehow, between the poles of the two songs, a sense of flow is established.
Ehrens moved to Panton in 2021, after living in Baltimore, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. He came north with a discography in tow, most notably the work of Dungeoness, his collaboration with Wye Oak’s Jenn Wasner. Their self-titled debut caught SPIN magazine’s attention, earning a spot on its “20 Best Pop Albums of 2013” list. His other projects include Baltimore synth-pop act Whife and twee-pop collective the Art Department.
All that experience is displayed on Dim Halo. It’s the work of an auteur, made by someone who has clearly studied how to make good records for most of his adult life. Ehrens’ grip on the material is so strong that he can lay out an atmospheric rocker such as “The Worst Win” yet dress it in the trappings of experimentation. He builds a wall of sound with angular stabs of distorted guitar and echo-laden instrumentation, a sonic watercolor of sorts. Drenched in reverb, his vocals soar above the mêlée.
Lyrically, the sense of doom is imminent: The flames are in the fields, and smoke is in the air. “When it’s hard to tell if we’re in hell / when things get dark / that is when I think I’m thanking God,” Ehrens sings on “I Think I’m Thanking God,” a tune that calls back the melodic thrust of the Beta Band.
On “I Can’t Get Enough,” Ehrens expresses a strange excitement about the frigid air and frozen roads of an approaching winter. But fear that this cold season might not return, that some great and tragic change is imminent, permeates the tracks.
Despite the lingering dread, Dim Halo is a gorgeous piece of music, often sonically uplifting and lyrically curious in a way that shows a songwriter holding life closely for inspection. Ehrens himself is like several songwriters stacked atop one another in a trench coat, such is the depth and range of his songwriting.
Give Dim Halo a spin at repelican.bandcamp.com or on major streaming services.
This article appears in Nov 5-11 2025.
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