“The Silence” by Handful of Snowdrops

As Jean-Pierre Mercier puts it, “It’s been incredibly difficult to concentrate on anything, most of all music, in this insanity. But here it is.” And thankfully so. Handful of Snowdrops’ latest single, released this past June, is a perfect distillation of what makes the Quebec post-punk outfit’s music so good.

“The Silence” is replete with the band’s trademark rhythms and pulsing sequencers, not to mention plenty of cresting synths and guitars as well as Mercier’s melodic sensibilities and incisive lyricism. “Now history you’ll disavow/While spitting blood back at the crowd,” he sings in a bitter condemnation of modern society: “But the silence’s damning most of all/I pray the guilt will take us all.”

In related news, Handful of Snowdrops have announced an upcoming Kickstarter campaign to fund physical releases of 2024’s Any Moment Now and 2015’s III. Both albums will be released in expanded collectors’ editions that will match the band’s original plans for them:

[L]ast year’s digital release of Any Moment Now was, for us, an incomplete statement. It was released in circumstances and in a form that fell short of our vision, and crucially, it never received the physical incarnation it deserved. It felt like a story left hanging. How can an album be real if you can’t hold it?

Second, the album that brought us back — III — has been a ghost for the past nine years. Sold out, unavailable, and too often requested, it was the pivotal chapter that new fans couldn’t read and old fans couldn’t revisit. The album that proved our story wasn’t over had itself vanished!

This Kickstarter campaign is our remedy. It is a one-time, deliberate act of completion for these two specific chapters.

This dual release will be limited to just 125 copies. The Kickstarter campaign launches on November 7, 2025 and will only run for 16 days.