• Reviews

• All
• Music
• DVDs
• Live
• Cinema
• TV
• Books
• Comic Books
• Video Games

Feb 19, 2018 Web Exclusive By Ellen Peirson-Hagger

“How is this happening?/How is this happening?/I can’t breathe/I can’t see,” sings POLIÇA vocalist Channy Leaneagh on “How Is This Happening,” the 10-minute-long lead single off the Minneapolis-based band’s collaboration with s t a r g a z e. The track was written the day after Trump was elected President in 2016. She moans a breathy, swelling melody over sparse meditative music, reaching out for answers that none of us will ever quite be able to grasp onto. Little by little, the piece unravels into a sonic nightmare-scape. It is at once startling and gorgeous.

Other tracks on this first collaborative record between the U.S. electronic quintet and the European orchestral collective are not so deftly desolate. “Agree” has definite life to it, as it takes a more hopeful outlook. It deals with the human relationships which continue to exist within culturally and politically dark times. “Feels so good to fall in love,” sings Leaneagh, a hopeful reminder of the power of humanity and closeness amongst dissonance. The ease with which the two ensembles play together is testament to this power of human intimacy, a feeling that sits at the heart of this wilfully experimental record.

“Speaking of Ghost” opens with an intimate brass and woodwind melody, unnerving as much as beautiful, while “Marrow” is heavy on the strings, Leaneagh’s voice swept under gnarly treatment before a storming drum beat powers through.

This is Music For the Long Emergency, an emergency that will not be going away any time soon and should be fought with, and wrestled with, over sombre synths and disturbing undulations. When a musical response to a politically lost society feels so appropriate, it is a wonder how anyone is listening to album after album of perfect cadences at all. (www.we-are-stargaze.com) (www.thisispolica.com)

Author rating: 7.5/10