As opening track ‘S.O.’ leads off with its minimal
electronic influenced instrumentation with flickering synths and booming bass
drum hits combined with sumptuous strings, you expect this to be an understated
electronic record that you can stick on late at night to chill out to. It does
end up being that but as Owens’ huge, enchanting voice enters the fray, you
realise that Owens has so much more hidden under her sleeve for the record and
that it won’t be that simple. This record deftly combines different styles of
electronic music and a dream pop aesthetic to create an engrossing piece of
work that simultaneously makes you want to move your feet and ponder life as
Owens calmly projects her feelings about love.
This style that Owens employs is perfectly demonstrated on
second track ‘Arthur’. It opens up with ocean sound samples combined with a
thunderous four to the floor beat that implores you to move your feet, it
evokes the image of crowds of people having a monster rave on the middle of the
beach with the waves of the ocean crashing into each other in the background.
There’s not much in the way of lyrics on this track but Owens still makes her
presence known with her haunting voice popping in every now and then often
times with just a sound, it may not seem like much but it adds emotion to the
track and gives it a sense of urgency and gives you a reason to actually be
dancing, it’s majestic stuff from Owens.
This record is deceptive in numerous ways, even more so than
the way it misdirects you with the first couple of tracks. The structure of the
tracks on this record is relatively simple throughout. They don’t often have
more than a couple drum tracks arranged in a certain way combined with Owens
voice and some synths but she manages to do so much with this structure. ‘Anxi’
instantly gave me Kraftwerk vibes with its hypnotic repetition and driving
rhythm commanding you to dance. Jenny Hval features on this track and the
voices of the two women work so well together and create dream pop emotive bliss
over this cold calculating German inspired beat, it’s so oxymoronic but it works
so well.
On ‘Evolution’ the track starts off with pounding minimal
techno beats but by the time you’ve finished with the track you’ve just
experienced a throbbing techno dance anthem that wouldn’t go amiss in a
warehouse/boiler room DJ set, it’s fascinating what Owens can create from these
few musical components. This electronic exploration is perfectly demonstrated
on the closing track ‘8’. A ten minute opus that starts with beautiful
minimalist beats and instrumentation that descends into Owens trying out
different rhythms to keep the listener engaged. She pulls it off with aplomb
and it comes as no surprise because everything up to that point has been
beguiling electro/dream pop bliss that grabs the listener’s attention and never
lets go.