New music guide The Neu Bulletin (Liima, Alex Vargas & more)

There’s more than a hint of Future Islands about Easy Kill’s latest bout of soul-enriching dream-rock. Pinned around a steadily pulsing bassline, it’s lifted by a sky-scraping vocal - lofty and inspiring, it soars towards a conclusion that could crumble mountains.

Spiralling percussion takes the lion’s share of this first taster of Finnish/Danish quartet Liima’s debut album ‘ii’. Clanking and clattering like a worn out relic of an old industrial age, it’s when paired with that softly billowing vocal that this lot mark themselves out as something beautifully jarring, and at odds with so many of their 4AD contemporaries in the best way possible.

Experimental cellist (bear with us, here) Shannon Hayden pairs her stringed instrument with a haunted vocal that’s reminiscent of Neu favourite Cross Record to dazzling effect. At once ambient and electronic-leaning and yet tangibly real-world, there’s a lasting, heart-warming echo to ‘Vanished’.

There’s nothing restricted about ‘Shackled Up’ - taking Vargas’ soulful, spine-tingling vocals and driving it upwards through swathes of electronica, there’s no glass ceiling to his glacial take on future-facing pop.

Like post-punk on diazepam, there’s a melancholy, hazy pulse to ‘Holiday’. Reminiscent of both those titular beachside jaunts and a murkier, city at nighttime sense of discovery, the juxtaposition of the two is gripping.

Tags: Liima, Listen, Features, Neu, Neu Bulletin