Album Review

Evokatuer – Crow’s Wedding EP

• 10th Apr 2012

I have the feeling that I should enjoy the debut EP from ‘enigmatic electro-pop duo’, Evokatuer, sadly the saccharine sweetness that bubbles over from lead track Same As You is far too much for me to take and belies the dark and moody image that the duo portray, instead convincing me that they could be aiming for a spot at Eurovision rather than skulking around Shoreditch nightspots.

Wildflowers follows a similar path, with a flighty lightness that just about nudges the song from being classified as ‘forgettable’ to ‘annoying’ instead, leaving me under the impression that Evokatuer’s sole purpose in music is to produce songs that sound like Goldfrapp going through a rather uninspired phase. The pop sheen is there, the electro nuances are intact, but it fails to hit the spot for me.

That is until the mid-point of the EP, suddenly we hit a change of tact and it is almost as if I have tuned into a completely different band, Misery, inspired by the Stephen King novel, shares an air of paranoia and dark urgency with it’s namesake, as the dark bassy synths swim in out of the track and the lyrics recall the infamous image of being ‘tied to the bed’, I must confess that they now have my attention, and I suddenly feel somehow bound to the music that plays.

And I am even more rapt by final track, Undone, as it beats an incessant 8bit percussive rhythm, while the female vocals that were previously unappealing now coo suggestively to be followed as the atmosphere darkens, delving the listener further into a captive state held where light can no longer penetrate, creating an intense claustrophobia as the track surrounds you.

As the first installent in a trilogy of planned EP releases that should transpire over the next few months, I can only hope that Evokatuer shun the initial flirtation with sickening Euro-pop and instead pursue the evocative darkness that informs the latter half of the Crow’s Wedding EP.