Not so much Not Safe For Work as Not Suitable For The Easily Disturbed, the video for the title track of Soap&skin’s new EP Sugarbread leaves you uneasy, and yet, compelled to watch again.
The video was ‘processed’ by Soap&skin herself, Anja Plaschg, and yet again she reveals herself to be an artist to watch, closely, carefully and with respect…
SOAP&SKIN – SUGARBREAD from Soap&Skin on Vimeo.
OK folks, there will be another radio show from me this week at 7-8PM on Fresh Air
this coming Thursday.
This was last week’s show -here’s the tracklisting again, and if you wish to listen to it, it’s there below:
1. Dead Can Dance ‘Children Of The Sun.’
2. Kate Bush ‘Running Up That Hill.’
3. Twin Shadow ‘Five Seconds.’
4. We Are The Physics ‘Applied Robotics.’
5. Aggi Doom ‘Bring Me The Head.’
6. Shamen ‘Jesus Loves Amerika.’ ‘Gone but not forgotten.’
7. Soap&Skin ‘Wonder.’
8. Cancel The Astronauts ‘Making Dynamite.’ Album of the month Animal Love Match
9. Matt Norris and the Moon ‘Roots Below.’
10. The Delgados ‘Mr. Blue Sky.’ ‘Cover version of the week.’
11. Grimes ‘Genesis.’
12. Antony & the Johnsons ‘Cut The World.’
Soap&Skin -‘Narrow’ (PIAS)
Soap&Skin is the work of one Anja Plaschg, an Austrian lass barely out of her teens. This eight track album is barely half an hour long, and fantastic as it is, when you hear it, you will feel that that is all it needs to be. Plaschg once played the legendary Nico on the Berlin stage, and like Nico’s classic albums The Marble Index and Desertshore, it’s a work of art that demands your attention and will leave you feeling wowed but drained by the end of it.
It’s not to say that there isn’t beauty here, because there most certainly is. Desireless’ 1988 hit ‘Voyage Voyage’ is transformed from a dark french disco number into something else; echoing the Norweigian singer Susanna’s way of transforming songs into something darker by stripping it to the shell of the song and the bleak experience within. ‘Wonder’ has picked up some radio play, and seems like a lullaby. But there are also moments like the violent ‘Deathmental’ and the songs that bookend the album ‘Vater’ and ‘Big Hand Nails Down’ that are compellling as they are frightening.
Not an easy listen, but one you won’t forget.
****1/2
Narrow is out now on PIAS
Anja Plaschg, aka Soap&Skin, is an Austrian lass, who is shortly to release her new album Narrow on March 19.
It’s haunting as.
This track is doing the rounds and it is great.
And wait til you hear her cover of Desireless’ ‘Voyage Voyage’. Haunting doesn’t come close…