Hey Mother Death

Highway

BY Alan RantaPublished Sep 2, 2014

7
Following up their eponymous tape EP from 2012, Halifax/Paris duo Denma Peisinger and Laurence Strelka headed out to rural France, to a place called Limousin, where the haunted atmosphere was conducive to their spontaneous, improvisational creative approach. Armed with vintage recording gear, they carved some compositions from the ether, mixed the results in Michigan and mastered it in England — yup, this Highway leads all over the world.

Throughout, Strelka has a smouldering inflection in her voice that bridges the gap between Jane Birkin and Nico, while the instrumentals, marked by minimal drum programming, droning synth leads, sparse, jazzy bass lines and fractured, delayed guitar distortion, would perfectly soundtrack many films by David Lynch and Alejandro Jodorowsky.

There are only four tracks on Highway, running a total of 28 minutes, so it's a bit of a stretch to call it an LP as their PR has stated, but it does provide a clear indication of their potential and range. "Highway" evokes visions of dystopia between Strelka's lyrics of hopelessness and the John Carpenter-esque instrumental, while "The Hills" has a rather sexy vibe, with an uptempo bass line, staccato guitar and Strelka pushing her dispassionate spoken word into emotive singing. Plus, despite their travel costs, the duo released this thing pay-what-you-can, and are giving half the proceeds to Amnesty International, 350.org, Global Sex Work Projects and the World Wildlife Fund. While their image can come off as impenetrably artsy, Highway shows this duo to be cool on many levels.
(Snake Power Records)

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