Sheep, Dog & Wolf – Sound of a Distant Wave: 13th Floor New Song Of The Day
Sheep, Dog & Wolf, aka Daniel McBride, releases his “first new single for a while”, Sound Of A Distant Wave.
Here is the blurb with more:
The layered, undulating sound of Sheep, Dog & Wolf has always defied categorisation. Auckland-born avant-pop polymath Daniel McBride creates mind-bending, genre-hopping compositions that meld experimentalism, math-rock, folk, electronica, and post-classical minimalism, all interwoven with McBride’s intriguingly beautiful voice – reminiscent of Anohni with notes of James Blake. Underpinning the complex harmonies and uncanny rhythmic flows is a visceral honesty, each song as delightfully intricate as it is heartachingly vulnerable. And every facet is written, performed, and recorded by McBride alone.
Classically trained in saxophone and self-taught in a variety of other instruments, Sheep, Dog & Wolf has been writing and releasing music since the tender age of seventeen. Ablutophobia, their debut EP, was recorded between classes in high school; its captivating mix of teenage naiveté and impressive compositional nous caught the attention of The Guardian and Vogue Italia, the former naming McBride a ‘young Sufjan Stevens’.
Ablutophobia was followed by 2013’s Egospect. Given their young age and the fact that they worked entirely alone, this debut full-length was frankly extraordinary; ornate but fluid, sturdy but supple, grounded but euphoric, it saw Sheep, Dog & Wolf win the Critics’ Choice Prize at the New Zealand Music Awards and made the shortlist at 2014’s Taite Prize.
Then came the dizzying rhythms and voices of 2021’s Two-Minds, showcasing McBride’s unique ability to document a young life in disarray, against a complex backdrop marrying orchestral arrangements with mutant R&B and off-kilter beats. This dextrous and ambitious sophomore received high praise; described by Clash as “truly intoxicating”, and by NPR as “lush and textured… so beautiful”, the latter named it one of their top albums of the week, and the record was McBride’s second to reach the shortlist for the Taite Prize for Best New Zealand Album.
Alongside all this, McBride fostered a second thread; their interest in the tools they were using to create their albums led them into the world of music-software engineering, and here too they have accumulated quite a body of work. They were one half of the research team that developed Serato’s industry-leading stem-separation algorithm; they helped build Serato’s DAW, Studio, from the ground up; and in more recent years they’ve been creating software for Akai’s fabled MPCs. They’ve even built bespoke plugins and programs to assist in their own production and live performances.
And now, in 2025, Sheep, Dog & Wolf returns with Sound of a Distant Wave. Beginning with a delicate simmering of clarinets and percussion before bursting open into a heady mix of jazz, electronica, post-rock, and avant-pop, this genre-defying new single sees McBride ruminating on the fragility of memory in the face of impending loss. “Memory is such a strange and unstable thing,” says McBride “and that’s thrown into sharp relief when you’re losing someone close to you. When the stakes feel that high, it can be difficult to accept that all things fade and distort with time. Sound of a Distant Wave is about looking for ways to hold on.”
And indeed, there is a dreamlike and shifting quality here that evokes that fragility and distortion. Distant saxophones meld with McBride’s enchanting group vocals, and while the driving bassline and thrumming beat give the track an undeniable groove, the ever-changing time signatures and pitched-percussion-soundscapes twist it into something strange, beautiful, and otherworldly.
