Give us a brooding pulsing synth line and vocals out of the Florence / Zola Jesus school of big hitters and there’s a pretty high chance that if such a sound is coupled with a degree of pop sensibility, we’ll be punching the air and shouting “Yes!” This may well explain the hole in our ceiling today, because Austra made us do exactly that – despite having a name that sounds like a model of a car.
Austra is the product of one Katie Stelmanis who has created a series of stately pop-noir electronic dance tunes that give us shivers of delight and fear in equal measures. It's not a 100% solo project though - she's being helped out by a number of others including two further female vocalists. Despite being from Canada, the references Austra take seem to be very eighties European – we could imagine them being popular in eastern Europe particularly – although the “ah-ah” vocal sound used on parts of the debut single Beat & The Pulse are not dissimilar to Laurie Anderson’s Oh Superman – and she was American. Having recently supported Hercules & Love Affair in the UK, Austra are due to release this single in February and we’re streaming it below together with the mechanical- turbo-throb-rhythm of Young & Gay. If you’ve enjoyed the likes of Labyrinth Ear and Mirrors who we’ve posted about before, we’re pretty sure that once you’ve had an earful of Austra you’ll be putting holes in your ceiling as well.
Austra - Beat & The Pulse (Radio Edit) by DominoRecordCoAustra - Young & Gay by DominoRecordCo
Austra - Beat & The Pulse (Extended Version) by DominoRecordCo
No comments:
Post a Comment