Music Review: Izzie Voodoo - The Push

Hmm, experimental dark electronica? Smells like a goth on acid to me. And, as usual, I'm convinced that I'm right. It's certainly an interesting experience, which is more than you can say for most of the pap that gets foisted upon you, the record buying public. I'm always amazed how something even a little bit out of the ordinary can capture your imagination and lift your spirits in a world of soundalike mediocrity.

Ms Voodoo (probably not her real name) takes care of pretty much everything on this release, writing the tunes, singing and doing all sorts of clever computery bits and bobs. I've always liked the idea of computer generated music that actually sounds like it was created on a computer. I mean what's the point of simulating real music on a machine? It's the aural equivalent of a blow up doll. And this is not a record that has any truck with simulation.

I probably won't be the first person to join the dots together and come up with the comparison, of Siouxsie Sioux joining the mighty Hawkwind in 1978 to make a Donna Summer tribute album. With added musical spikes. It sounds like an utterly mad thing to do, but that's what lifts this up beyond the usual recorded-in-a-bedroom, electro goth nonsense that wearers of black nail varnish try to foist upon an uninterested world.

The one thing that Ms Voodoo has remembered to do, which many forget, is to actually write some melodies that hang around your head, long after the sturm-und-drang has passed. "Hot Wire" could easily make the move into the world of commercial success with a few tweaks here and there, and it's not alone. "Sound" is the track getting the single push, and there's absolutely no reason, with a bit of luck, and a YouTube video, it shouldn't make some fair sized waves. Elsewhere, hooks there are a-plenty, alongside a few heavy rhythms. Nothing to get fellow Barnsley natives Saxon worried, but heavy enough.

It's on the cusp of electro goth and dark trance, with nods to the founding fathers Depeche Mode as well as the likes of Skinny Puppy and Front Line Assembly. But with melodies light enough to keep the Kylie fans happy and enough drama for a platoon of Collide fans, Izzie Voodoo may have stumbled across one of the big sounds of the year.

Article Author: Stuart A Hamilton

Mr H is a compulsive reviewer who has foisted his opinions across the internet, as well as in UK publications like Record Collector and Blues Matters, where he is a contributing writer. If you really want to know more go to stuarthamilton.co.uk But …

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