This has a dark, dreamlike and gothic quality to it. I’m reminded of the more abstract moments in Micah P Hinson’s back catalogue at times – that autoharp shimmering like the ghost of Washington Phillips. A Sudden Loss Of Speed is spectral, shadowy music where mood is key- a brooding song suite with a toe dipped into 80s atmospheres- cold, despairing, oddly British and deeply personal.
Seemingly inspired too by that revised fondness found in the previous decade for the sort of arch, baroque countenance found in chanson-inspired pop – a Scott Walker indebted, candlelit magnificence and darkly brooding intensity- there’s also a Velvetsesque simplicity to the direct and affecting melodies that hold these dark lyric pieces in a close embrace. Recent art-pop experimenters Casual Technicians also spring to mind in the rich, somnambulant atmospheres created here. It’s beautiful stuff- a strange meeting place of the grandiose and intimate.
This EP is well worth getting to know – and I hope you take the time to do just that.
Written by M.A Welsh (Misophone)
