Inventive, alluring, sensual, mysterious, minimalistic electronica, trip-hop and experimental pop by the London trio of Ella Harris, Joshua Baxter and Louis Satchell, in this second album following 2022’s Blush, boosted the inventive insights of producer and instrumentalist Kwake Bass. Harris’s understated, breathy, whispery, sultry vocals immediately grab attention with the unaccompanied announcement, “Good morning”, on the weather-contemplative opener Rain with slow beat and woozy, synth riffs and note bends. Single Enough is one of the instant standouts, a noir-ish, shadowy flavour of oddball sensuality with low key bass and jittery hi-hat (“Fix me, white knuckles on my skin / I want to be the one you play with.”) Mate brings echoey, dark drones, sudden musical gasps, and crisp percussion with half whispered mentions of intimacy. Send, perhaps the highlight, begins with gurgling mystery, then breaks into a driving beats with a S&M Berlin-esque club flavour and allure. Peel has a strong retro sound and a certain slow oddball robotic-style fetishism: “Push my fingers in, pull the skin off”. There are also interplays of gender distinction on tracks such as Sleek Form and Boyface: “Met a man today, He’s a woman no more,” and “You’ve got a boy’s face and soft lips”. Overall this album is one of exposed flesh and feeling, and it’s strongly a compositional case of less is more with PVA, giving their tracks plenty of room to breathe, sweat, feel and echo, particular on the last three tracks, from the slow lustful longing of Flood, the permissive tactility of Okay (“You wanna do what? On my face? Okay”) and Moon’s synth long notes syncopated pulsing. A fascinating, playful, ghostly, visceral, sexual, sensual piece of work by a very inventive, original trio. Out on It's All For Fun.
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