VOICEsVOICEs – Origins EP
Los Angeles has been experiencing something of a renaissance. No longer do they have to rely on hair-metal atrocities, Henry Rollins and Perry Farrell. With the Club Smell and associated scene proving so productive, they now have much new blood. This said, its greatest exports to date are now all two or more albums in, or in the case of one of the below, no longer extant at all. Nevertheless, a very solid groundwork has been laid with the magnificent horror-disco of HEALTH, worldbeat punk of Abe Vigoda, clattering garage of Mika Miko (RIP) and discordant lo-fi of No Age, but where to next?
Well, one avenue could be VOICEsVOICEs. This second EP by the all-female pairing of Jenean Farris and Nico Turner is produced by Warp and Prefuse 73’s Guillermo Scott Herren and it shows. His IDM fingerprints are all over it, but Origins is not limited to his brand of glitchy ambience.
The opening track, “FlulykVisions”, is full of experimental drone and vocal loops that have been clipped and reversed in parts turning them into a foreign garble, yet elsewhere they babble in soothing harmonies. Sprinkles of light cymbal build the girls’ efforts into largely ambient, dreamy rhythms, which come paired with hushed echoes and Turner’s edge-of-sanity whispers. “Out From Under” takes it down a further notch with echo-y and gentle, synthesised washes, barely-there strumming and atmospheric splashes. Consequently, it comes across pleasingly like Fourtet chilling out at some idyllic beach spot.
The glitchy thirty seconds of “Transitions” are no more than an interlude before the title tracks stakes its claim with definite purpose thanks to a pronounced snare pattern and mid-tempo drone. Drawn out guitarwork plays with spaced out vocal harmonies, which later devolve into manic howling. Origins closes with “SOundsOutloud”, reverting to ambient glitchtronica, malfunctioning laser fire, and pulsing, fizzing drones.
Origins doesn’t place a foot wrong but by being so firmly entrenched in psychedelic, trancelike ambience it misses an opportunity to raise its game from one of reverie to the celestial. However, if Origins is true to its name, there could yet be much to come from Farris and Turner.