EP Reviews: Cryalot, The Soft Pink Truth, Sun's Signature

Icarus - Cryalot

Icarus is the debut EP from Cryalot, the new solo project of Sarah Bonito from Kero Kero Bonito fame. It's essentially a five song collection framed around the story of Icarus which Sarah uses as a metaphor for some of her own experiences in recent years. The main thing I was curious about as the singles unfolded was what made this a true solo Sarah project. She's always delivered quite a bit of personality to the music of KKB which meant the split to a solo venture was either because she wanted to write, produce and create songs entirely on her own, or there was a thematic or stylistic shift that was too drastic to still fall under the band's umbrella. After listening to the EP I'm still really not sure which one it is. While the lead single Hell Is Here is fine, it didn't really convince me. The track that did win me over eventually was the opener Touch The Sun whose booming drums and maximal shimmering finale both work as a perfect sonic and thematic instruction to the whole project. Beyond that, it's just yet another parade of catchy refrains and sugary sweet vocals like so many KKB songs before it. I'm also quite a big fan of the third and final single which preceded the EP by just a few days Labyrinth. It presents a similar hard contrast as Touch and the bombastic moments are equally as satisfying. The record makes an attempt to wander away from straight-up synth-pop and J-Pop on pretty much every track and while it is generally with good results not everything Sarah tries here translates perfectly. Thankfully the good outweighs the bad and the great fundamentals Sarah has propel almost all of these songs to be decent at the least and occasionally great. 7/10

Was It Ever Real? EP - The Soft Pink Truth

While this year's Matmos album is far from my favorite project of theirs I am always ready to hear some new music from Drew Daniel. I would say The Soft Pink Truth project had a bit of a breakout year in 2020 releasing an album I really enjoyed. Given that the Bandcamp page for this EP makes a direct connection from that record to this project I was very excited to hear what it had to offer. I was also interested by the long list of contributors to the music here and the fact that there's a cover of the Coil song The Anal Staircase in the mix. Even though I had no idea what to expect I was still kind of surprised by the long runtime and methodical house beats of the opening track. Surprised in a good way because the dark rumbling bass and perfect splashes of vocal samples really help icon out the songs innately repetitive bliss. That methodical intent continues onto the second track and while I'm not as entranced by it I do like that the shift to more standard vocal interpolations gives it some brevity. Now in certain circles covering Coil is the equivalent to covering The Beatles but I think Drew is fully aware of what he's stepping into in that regard. Even with the carefulness I'm sure was deployed in the process of creating it I'm still not CRAZY about this cover though it has less to do with any kind of disagreement I have with their decision making and more just about the execution. Drew is certainly no stranger to compelling cognitive dissonance which is why I was so surprised to hear the more chaotic moments of this song coming off as chaotic in all the wrong ways. With the exception of that track though I'm really enjoying this EP. The attention to detail and lucid soundplay never really let me go as we work through these tracks and with the first two songs in particular being an impressive way to kick things off, anyone with any interest in electronica is likely to find something appealing here. 7.5/10 

Sun's Signature - Sun's Signature

Sun's Signature is the new project of Elizabeth Fraser who once famously fronted dream pop band Cocteau Twins, and her partner Damon Reece. With her former band and their music coming back into vogue in a major way in recent years as a result of both the dream pop explosion and the slowed + reverbed sensation whose roots can find their way back to Fraser's work, it feels like as good a time as ever for her to return to the spotlight. And return she did as this EP opens up with an excellent swing for the fences that turns into a full blown home run across almost 7 minutes. Lending her beautiful voice and harmonies to an immensely gratifying composition of swelling strings wrapped around some tight bass licks and methodical drumming is as easy a recipe for success as I can conjure up. Unfortunately I'm not as crazy about the following song Golden Air which felt like a weird choice for a single and still does very little for me. The shrill nearly whispered vocal refrains on the hook really don't pair well with the bright almost life-affirming reaches of the instrumentation and on top of it all the track really doesn't put in the hard work to make that build-up worthwhile in the first place. Things get back on track with Bluedusk, a hauntingly theatrical cut that has me mesmerized even though it kind of sounds like the hellish score to a movie about children's toys that come to life and kill people. The make or break moment on the EP comes with its longest track Apples which runs at 8 minutes and is thankfully absolutely gorgeous. The combination of cloudy mixing and beautiful folky arrangements give the whole thing a garden of eden like beauty. I actually ended up liking this EP a lot more than I anticipated and while like both of the previous two it isn't perfect, there is a LOT worth hearing here. 7.5/10