'Roughest Cuts: The Demos'
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.