Elizabete Balcus 'IKA' Wall of Sound Reviewed by John Robbins

Elizabete Balcus hails from Riga in Latvia, and having started her career making a hybrid of pop and baroque classical styles, she's now opted to fuse her gorgeous voice and fluttering flute with very assured sounding electronics.  The results are quite unique.

We'd first been alerted to her music by various reports of her spectacular and unashamedly eccentric live appearances at a number of festivals over the summer, where reports of a leotard-clad Balcus playing an array of MIDI-synched vegetables had got a number of different reviewers pouring forth with the praise.  A great live show doesn't always equate to a corking recorded output though, but we're happy to report that 'IKA', the first song from a forthcoming second album is very definitely living up to the hype.

With its lyrics based around the ancient Greek myth of Icarus, who flew too close to the sun and plunged to a watery grave when his wings melted, it's a curious but compelling mixture of a mutated two step garage bassline, washing ambient soundscapes, that trademark flute sound and a haunting vocal performance.  You've got to particularly love the track's central hook, which is just Balcus laughing to herself.  You can look forward to eliciting plenty of strange looks from onlookers when you spontaneously sing it aloud top yourself in public.  Which, take it from us, you will do.

With mushrooming fan bases around Europe especially - the Italians were on the case early and particularly love her - she is venturing away from her Latvian base more and more, and no doubt will be playing the Uk again soon, after a storming Camden show in support of Extricate faves Gabi Garbutt & The Illuminations back in June.  In the meantime, we'd recommend five portions of 'IKA' a day for healthy living. 

Hear Elizabete Balcus on Soundcloud: here

Text by John Robbins 2018

In The Studio with James Johnston

Richard Barr has taken 10 photos of James Johnston in his South London Studio...

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ARTIFICIALLY YOURS: ' THE MERGER' 1-2-3-4 RECORDS Reviewed by John Robbins

To see ARIFICIAALY YOURS's video click: here

Punk attitude comes in many shapes and sizes these days, as befits something which was more of an idea and an attitude more than a sound. What is for sure, though, is whether you're talking about Sleaford Mods or Aphex Twin, it's something that is instantly recognisable. It might be hard to define, but God, you certainly know it when you hear it.

And the Colchester-based trio Artificially Yours definitely have by the truckload. Their songs are about living life in the commuter belt anonymity of M25 satellite towns being destroyed by international corporates and the sinister forces that have a stranglehold on the globe. All delivered with a derisory sneer from behind dark glasses, accompanied by the throb of cheap laptop electronics, purloined hip-hop beats and slashing, molten metal guitars.

Like another more famous Colchester band we could mention, they definitely believe that modern life is rubbish, But while they may share a slice of the bored restlessness and erudite sarcasm that informed Blur, it feels like the solution Artificially Yours have is not to observe from the sidelines, but rather get stuck with active resistance, to fight back.

So while 'The Merger', the lead track from their current EP of the same name on the 1-2-3-4 label might, on the surface, seems to be about apocalypse and the imminent collapse of society – with perhaps a nod to Killing Joke, the video splices riot scenes with North Korean military parades and mushroom clouds – there's a vibe of positive fightback lurking just beneath. Far from being a depressing thing, it seems to be saying 'the old world is falling apart, it's up to us to rebuild it in our own image.'

The music is violent but energising, built on piledriving riffs and a haze of warm fuzzy distortion, topped off with spacey wooshes and dives, evoking the days before the Pistols when John Lydon used to skulk around the back of Hawkwind gigs selling acid.

This is only one fact to their sound, as recent gigs have show they're equally adept at cheeky and very catchy hip-hop influenced grooves too. But as introductions go, it's a pretty spectacular and no holds barred way to enter the arena.

'The Merger' EP is released on 24/08/18

Live dates:
29/08/18 – Old Blue Last, Shoreditch, London
12/09/18 – Monarch, Camden, London.