Restraint

Dischi Autunno welcome two kindred spirits to the fold as Penelope Trappes and Stephen Hindman roll out more barbed noir tales in The Golden Filter's inimitable style. Following their remarkable EP on 4GN3S this month comes another generous dispatch: 'Restraint', a mini-LP threaded together purely with 808 drum machines. Five tracks and two remixes deep; a quiet intensity and tension is found amid the textures and spacious designs a beautifully choreographed power struggle is articulated and boundaries are questioned. The opening track says it all as 'Silence' see Penelope mechanically listing off authoritative words that wrap around the arpeggiated transistor synth bass and occasional whip samples. Intense yet vulnerable, it sets the tone for the whole EP. Elsewhere hypnotic industrial click percussions reverberate in empty Vannio-esque dim environments on the likes of 'Curtain' while cuts like 'Restraint' offset the oppression by early Madonna vibes veering teasingly close to pop. The vocal tension and oppression galvanised by the atmospheric analog electronics creates this constant push and pull that leaves you, and your dancefloor, right in the eye of the storm as we build up to the emotional tort 'Coincidence' that is anything but its namesake. Complete with crisp broken beat remixes from Kluentah and Lokier and what you have here is a series of scenes from Body Double... But updated for the dark but not too distant future.