Review: Beauty Queen Autopsy – 'Roughest Cuts: The Demos'

BEAUTY QUEEN AUTOPSY 

'Roughest Cuts: The Demos' 

UNDUSTRIAL RECORDS 

After occasional collaborations over the years, Caustic's Matt Fanale and Unwoman's Erica Mulkey have joined forces to form a dark pop group... yep, that's right. A début full-length album is scheduled for early 2014, but in the meantime a four-track demo EP is available for free to whet appetites. It's a partnership that works extremely well. Fanale's minimalistic and somewhat noisey electronics are a nice juxtaposition to Erica's sultry vocals.

The EP kicks off with the wonderfully mechanical dark synthpop of 'Good, Giving, Game' with it's simple drum beat and subtle but very memorable lead melody. 'Birthday Pony' is again a simple and minimalistic track, yet this time the juxtaposition between the noisier leaning of the musical formula and the soft vocals are more pronounced due to the harsher lead synth. Next comes the unexpected but incredibly gratifying cover of The Sex Pistols' 'Submission'. Again the noise is more pronounced, yet there is a great synthpop underbelly driving the song. The EP then closes on the dance-friendly stripped back techno of 'Lotharia', which leaves you wanting more.

These are demos so they are rough around the edges (hence the title!), however they display a well thought out approach to song-writing and strong performances by both members. The only way you could describe it is to imagine Frank Tovey and Siouxsie Sioux forming a band together and you'll get the drift. It's promising at this stage, and will no doubt catch more than a few people off guard when the full-length album is unleashed.

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