Stigma-Style is the new EP from Guam-born, now Brooklyn resident Rosa Bordallo, who records under the name Manett.

Born and raised on the Pacific island of Guam, and descended from the indigenous people of the Mariana islands, Bordallo chose the name Manett as a reference to her maternal grandfather, Manuel, whose Chamorro pronunciation sounds much like “Manett”. Now living in New York, Bordallo writes and records during whatever spare moments can be found away from the office job: weekends, evenings, journeys to and from work…

Listening to the EP’s dreamy opening track A New View, it’s hard to square the sounds - the soft, lilting reverbed guitar and toms - with the brusque, hectic environment they were born in. The second track on the EP, The Birds (for Paulo), begins with birdsong and an affecting and simple melody, before a collision of rhythms takes over, like trying to remember a dream but finding the details never quite agreeing with each other. The track is inspired by and dedicated to Paulo Henrique Machado, who Bordallo read about in a news article: Paulo has lived in a Brazilian hospital for more than forty-five years, on a 24/7 artificial respirator, and is now a computer animator despite his debilitating condition. For closing track, Treehouse, it’s back to more relaxing territory, with guitars and drums shuffling, and and a sweetly innocent sounding Bordallo singing of being young, being a treehouse (“and you my tarzan, swinging from the limbs, lying in my shade”); “if the world was a maze I’d get lost in it”, she concludes.

Stigma-Style will be available for download for free from Bandcamp on March 28, 2015. A special-edition cassette release, including a bonus track, is available for pre-order from $5 (plus shipping).