Emerging from the seedier peripheries of synth pop and resurrecting that uneasy sense of dread and sleaze favoured by the likes of Japan or Soft Cell, signer, songwriter, leader, Katie Stelmanis, accompanied by Maya Postepski (drums) and Dorian Wolf (bass), ventures once more into her unsettling 'goth' electro world and delivers something beautifully strange.
Under the Austra name Stelmanis' trio explore a range of territories and emotive areas not unlike the strangely dark edges of the The Knife's best moments where the unsettling meets the playful and then by turns the oddity factor of Fever Ray almost by default.
Of course the most distinctive thing about Austra is always going to be Stelmanis' operatic vocal style but the songs themselves are stronger, poppier, than before, more liable to stick in your brain and have you humming them for hours, in particular the uptempo 'Lose It' which has literally been, rattling around this reviewers brain for weeks.
Perhaps the closest artist to which you could compare Austra would be Bat For Lashes however there's less, fantasy dust on display here as Austra prefer to emote more grit, grime and real world anxiety amongst their own particular brand of fairy glitter pop.
No comments:
Post a Comment