:Papercutz - Lylac
I don’t think we’ve ever featured any music of Portuguese origin on E&D before but if this is representative of what it’s like then we’re going to have to find a whole lot more because ‘Lylac’ by Bruno Miguel’s :papercutz project is one of the most extraordinary albums I have heard all year.
It started out as a one man studio operation but they have since grown in to a full band and produce wonderfully organic, haunting and enchanting electronic pop music. It’s hard to find a reference point for them, maybe Lamb on one of their more cohesive forays, maybe Richard D. James on too much ecstasy? Whatever it is, it’s beautiful.
Warm, plasmic bass sounds are lined up alongside stuttering, glitchy drum beats and ethereal, multi-layered vocal tracks to form a whole that is at once an entrancing yet unsettling listening experience. It’s those vocals that really make the whole thing exceptional though, coming courtesy of American singer Melissa Veras. They hang above the music like mist above a lake, occasionally parting to show the depths of the music behind. Veras has a voice like no other I’ve heard, deep of tone, quavering and emotive. On tracks like ‘All We Have Left’, ‘Ultravioleta’ and the title track it turns what would have been pleasant electronica in to something that is quite remarkable.
‘Lylac’ is an unusual beast of a record in these increasingly self-referential times, it is a piece of original music that whilst its influences are recognisable the alchemy of its creators has been to devise something that truly sounds like no single one of them and to produce an album that is genuinely special.
Top Tracks: 'All We Have Left', 'Lylac'.
Released October 05 on Apegenine