“I imagine a painting, obscured mixulatively in its’ creation by a child’s hands, smearing the frontal colours together, so the pinks become reds, and the whole melange of influences canvassed (Ambient Dubstep unconscious; shoegaze electro-acoustic mashups; tape loopings) get glooped into a set of pastels once the aural painting has been left to dry. The pastels come in many colours, “A Sweet Thing” to the initial “Summer Eyes”, where the trend is to pursue the orange of the sun, so it slots alongside a solarium feel to the overall construct.”
The first piece reminds one of an untypical plunder-photonic jelly, where the light reflected back by the listener’s attenuation warrants a signal response of high volume at low light. It’s a real bathing tune, pretty to start, with daubed marshmellow soft synths, then it builds to a deep sea dive like something The Boats might come up with, had Fritz Pfleumer drowned underwater and got greeted by the heaven’s sunshine. “Summer Eyes” is also very asymmetric with “A Sweet Thing”, both wordily (the glance of a rosy retrospection The Caretaker might dream up), and retro-absorbantly (sweet things usually being little things, mementos, to a greater good).
This all rings true with Felicia Atkinson’s “Summer Eyes”, and as much as I’d love a return to the “Roman Anglais” (“I shot down my baby” vocals – deliciously of old, released in 2008) type stuff, this short 21 minute EP feels a very valid and noteworthy extension of the style Felicia was veering towards on last year’s “The Driver”. The compositional integrity is as sharp as ever, the timbres glisten with an oasis-cidic comfort. Generally speaking, this doesn’t happen in such a continuity with every artist that makes up the last two year’s scenic incognoscenti; the focus pressuring artists to more short releases when long-form works light a brighter fire. But with “Summer Eyes”, we have a catch 44: a feel of double the length, and twice the quality – obviously by now you’ll gather I think this is top-drawer.
Ahh, ‘Roman Anglais’ is still one of my favourite records! But this new one sounds great too.