Sinjin Hawke and Zora Jones

Vicious Circles

BY Kevin PressPublished Jul 31, 2018

8
"God," the debut single from this exciting duo, features a cracking sample of a Bulgarian vocal choir. For the uninitiated, a pair of late '80s vinyl reissues on the 4AD label turned these uniquely talented singers into an international phenomenon.
 
As the story goes, former Bauhaus frontman Peter Murphy handed off a home-taped copy of the choir to label head Ivo Watts-Russell. Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares coincided with the emergence of world music and those recordings made a vital contribution to its commercial viability.
 
Sinjin Hawke and Zora Jones have their own his and herstory. Hawke (a Canadian by the name of Alan Stanley Soucy Brinsmead) has partnered with DJ Rashad, Just Blaze, MikeQ and Frank Ocean. He's also got a production credit on Kanye West's "Wolves" (as in "Ima fix wolves") from The Life of Pablo.
 
Jones comes to us from Austria, with numerous recordings in circulation. Her debut EP, 100 Ladies, landed in 2015. She is Hawke's partner at the audio-visual production company Fractal Fantasy.
 
These seven tracks are thick and crunchy. "And You Were One" is a safe bet to be the followup single to "God"; both tracks are aggressively sweet. The hooks are in-yer-face and the beats often frantic.
 
The other five titles are less immediately accessible. "Lurk 101" is full-on industrial; "BabyBoySosa" is an electronic detonation waiting to happen; and "Source of Conflict" is, well, accurately titled.
(Planet Mu)

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