DahL Resurfaces with “High Tide”: A Nautical Fugitive Romance Anchored in Isolation and Imagination

Montreal-based art rock trio DahL return with their arresting new single, “High Tide” — a nautical fugitive romance that sails straight into the imagination. Equal parts prison break and polar expedition, the track anchors the listener, drags them under, and refuses to let go.

Inspired by Atlas of Remote Islands by Judith Schalansky, “High Tide” conjures a bleak escape story set on a fragment of land surrounded by wreckage, penguins, and saltwater static. The song follows a silent passenger — Hightide — as the narrator delivers a fragmented, feverish monologue of exile and flight. The identities of these castaways remain uncertain: prisoners, explorers, or simply stranded souls. What remains is their grim camaraderie, soaked in isolation and nautical tension.

The title itself becomes a cipher — a name, a feeling, and a force. “Maybe the two characters were prisoners. Maybe they were explorers who became stranded. Maybe the island itself was the prison. They may have once been friends, or even lovers, but none of that is spelled out,” explains frontperson Nassir Liselle (guitar/vocals). “Hightide is a presence more felt than heard – a rising pressure, a pull toward movement, a sense that something is about to break.”

That feeling — a mix of beauty, dread, and inevitability — courses through every second of the track. Recorded at Studio Saint Zo in Montreal with Monty Munro (Preoccupations), the song was built layer by layer, each instrument capturing the shifting emotional tides of the story. Yet even as the sessions progressed, “High Tide” resisted easy definition. “Someone asked Monty, ‘So what does this song sound like?’” recalls Liselle. “He paused, nodded thoughtfully, and said, ‘I have no idea… but I like it.’ That was the moment I put my head in my hands. Deep down, we were trying to make something accessible, and somehow ended up in this strange, emotionally-charged grey zone that doesn’t quite behave. Classic us.”

Stylistically, “High Tide” finds DahL refining their signature sound — peeling back sequenced layers in favor of a rawer, more physical energy. The emphasis on percussion and bass gives the track a pulsing undercurrent, echoing the relentless motion of waves and the human need for escape. Atmospheric textures still thread through the mix, but what emerges is more immediate — like standing in the room with the band as they teeter between control and collapse.

Formed in 2014 after the dissolution of their previous project Oliverthegreat, DahL’s lineup — Liselle, Bryan Greenfield, and Edward Scrimger — has since evolved into one of Montreal’s most distinctive experimental rock acts. Drawing from post-punk grit, R&B sensuality, and the cinematic depth of ’90s trip-hop, the trio have crafted a sound that is both tactile and transcendent, defined by socially charged lyricism and meticulous sound design.

Their 2024 debut LP That’s It earned critical acclaim from CULT MTL and Exclaim!, with critics praising its “restless experimentation” and “intensely visual storytelling.” Onstage, DahL have developed a reputation for transforming venues into immersive spaces — sharing bills with Suuns, FACS, and other art rock heavyweights who blur the line between performance and experience.

Fresh from their international debut at New York’s New Colossus Festival, DahL now look outward — across oceans, horizons, and emotional landscapes. “High Tide” is less a song than a passage, a drift into the unknown that captures the trio’s restless pursuit of meaning and sound.

In a moment when much of modern rock feels overdefined, DahL thrives in ambiguity. With “High Tide,” they invite listeners not to seek answers but to surrender to the pull — the current, the pressure, the breaking point where stories dissolve into salt and static. It’s the band at their most vulnerable and most assured, steering into uncharted waters and finding beauty in the wreckage.

At once intimate and immense, “High Tide” cements DahL’s place as one of the most compelling art rock voices to emerge from Montreal’s creative underground — a band unafraid to lose themselves in the tide if it means finding something true...