Austra - Sparkle

With krautrock synths and warbling vocals, Toronto based Austra are the more accessible answer to Zola Jesus. Where songs such as ‘Spellwork’ sound like glitter tinged doom, hit ‘Lose It’ feels more uplifting, though the lyrics say otherwise.

‘Sparkle’ is a remix EP released alongside the former of those, new single ‘Spellwork’. Katie Stelmanis groans ‘The mornings I rest here / The evenings I work here,’ the monotonous tone contradicting the sparkly oscillating synths.

Some remixes unfortunately fall flat, like the MNDR Nightclub remix of ‘Spellwork’ which sucks all the soul of the original. The Mark Pistel Vocal Remix of ‘Lose It’ however, sounds like a sped up Factory Floor song and upholds the atmosphere of both the song and also Austra as a band.

This is a good filler in between their debut full length ‘Feel It Break’ and new material, but on the whole the remixes don’t quite live up to the original songs.