The most intense form of fury isn’t an outburst: it’s the steely silence, the meditated madness, the barrier that seals hearts and announces with quiet resolve, “never again.” That thoughtful anger – healing, protective, purposeful – is the basis for the upcoming album from ambient/drone/noise project A Stick and A Stone.
Formed by vocalist and composer Elliott Miskovicz, A Stick and A Stone is both musical expression and collective resistance. Elliott, an openly trans and disabled artist, explores the pain of climate injustice, war, plague, and gendered violence with meditative and cacophonous soundscapes that reflect on how we protect ourselves while navigating grief and rage.
Conspire, out on June 27th, creates unsettling-yet-beautiful songs that combine delicate vocals and classical instrumentation with off-kilter rhythms, sounds of fire and protest, and spoken work samples. Elliott’s own voice, channeling the powerful tension of Homogenic-era Björk, cascades over the entire expression.
The newest track from Conspire, “Kill Him,” is one of the most emotional and confrontational songs on the album. Opening with the distant rumblings of noise and careful intonations from Elliott, “Kill Him” is a dark meditation on revenge and generational trauma. Focusing on gendered violence, Elliott’s increasingly furious voice pleads against crackling static and ethereal choruses, while a subtle current of dissonance adds an edge of tortured psyche. The burden of pain dripping down bloodlines only becomes heavier and more maddening – even as we plead for relief. The cycle must be broken.
Elliott shared the all-too-real inspiration behind the haunting song:
“This song is a meditation on healing intergenerational trauma from gendered violence — by giving voice to revenge fantasies we’re not supposed to speak aloud. I wrote it after a man hurt a young person close to me (I'm keeping the details vague for their safety). Over time, the song became a way to reckon with how violence ripples through bloodlines, haunting families across generations.
‘Kill Him’ is where grief shapeshifts into a fire — not to harm, but to protect. It’s a ritual to sever inherited wounds, and to end the cycle of silence before it begins again.”
Pre-order Conspire on Bandcamp before it drops on June 27th. Cassettes will be available via Fiadh Productions and CDs via Mutual Aid Records.