Stumbleine featuring Violet Skies -‘Chasing Honeybees EP’ (Monotreme)

Following on from his rather fine debut album Spiderwebbed, UK producer Stumbeleine has teamed up to collaborate with Welsh singer-songwriter Violet Skies.

Ahead of their April album Dissolver, they have released this five track EP. I must confess that when I first heard it back at the end of last year I wasn’t all that keen. However, going back to it a couple of months later, it’s grown on me a bit.

I think perhaps part of the problem was that I found second track ‘Just Tell Me’ a bit dull, and at first ‘The Moonlight Flood’ seemed a bit too much like Leona Lewis’ ‘Bleeding Love’ to stand on its own merits. But the latter track improves on repeated plays. Added to which, opener ‘Clip My Wings’ and closer ‘Caroline’ are pretty good.

However, the highlight on this EP is the cover of ‘And Then He Kissed Me.’ It’s sometimes not really understood how much of an influence the Phil Spector songbook and wall of sound had on not only on girl groups but also on punk, indie (especially the c-86 variety) and shoegazing. If you’re not familiar with Stumbleine’s sound, it is 1 part shoegaze to 1 part electronica and with the vocal here, it’s a cocktail that shows up what a great reworking it is of a song that is now fifty years old.

Oh, and none of the tracks on this album are on the forthcoming album.

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Chasing Honeybees is released by Monotreme on February 10.

Stream and download ‘Clip My Wings’ from the EP here

Check out Stumbleine’s bandcamp here