Electronically Yours

'I plan to swap your pennies for my thoughts one day'

Electro spooky Emika shapeshifts from Bristol to Berlin in her creation of dark and self indulgent music. 'Count Backwards' is 'sort of' immediate in the same way it is 'sort of' dubstep, 'sort of' trip hop and all a bit on the edge of madness with beguiling vocals...what's not to like?

The hypnotic and shadowy synth music draws you in like a spell, creepy edged dubstep and simply fearless direction; another contender for 'witchery dubskip' methinks? 'Count Backwards' burns into your soul with its psychosis, like a musical panic attack as you count down to blissful calm, somewhat uncomfortably and feeling jumpy. This neck of the woods does seem to be good at producing this dance noir since the reign of Portishead.

The talented Ms was signed so early on she had to hide 'in a bubble' in Berlin, away from the industry and trying to find her way; all sounding super cool so far. Only three tracks really out there at the moment but 'Double Edge' is another jerky and spooktacular effort from last year with a break to swirling instrumentation; quite unique.

Jump for this BBC interview where she makes some interesting comparisons between the music scenes of Bristol and Berlin which has resulted in her pitch-dark, sometimes doom laden dubtechno....a track to avoid sat on your own in witching hour...lovelovelove it so listen up, the intro alone will haunt your mind for a few hours after. Avant-garde pop loveliness so hurry up with that debut LP please.

'Count Backwards' is out today on Ninja Tune with remixes from Kriptic Minds and Marcell Dettmann.

Related link:

Emika @ Facebook






Austra: The choke

Waiting oh so impatiently for another track from the long awaited 'Feel it Break', well I say long wait, a few months really, the super brilliance of Soundcloud is streaming 'The Choke'. It is quite simply gorgeousness; with softer vocals from frontwoman Katie Stelmanis, it differentiates from the previous releases with a slight hint of Kate Bush but still in keeping with the Depeche Mode- ish backing, it can only be a winning formula.

Austra have caught the darker sound of Mode but not ripped it off in that postmodern way and it's made all so more interesting with her quite unique vocal range. For those that might find Katie's vocals a bit over powering sometimes, this one is a little more chilled out. Someone please put 'Darken Her Horse' on there soon...completely in love and adoration so far.

After a depressing and institutionally cruel betting weekend in dear old Blighty, my harmless flutter would go on this as the EY album of the year (although I might have to put Orac in a headlock and make him cry a bit). Austra are supernaturally exciting so get caught up in the spell she weaves with her beguiling vocals and deep synths...enchanting.

Coming up on EY ...Babooshka reviews a lovely promo of the Austra debut 'Feel it Break'