Not so m

uch 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 watc

h again.

The vid

eo was ‘processed’ by Soap&skin herself, Anja Plaschg, and yet again she reveals herself to be an artist to watch, closely, carefully and with r

espect…

SOAP&SKIN – SUGARBREAD from Soap&Skin on Vimeo.

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 d

rained 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 d

oing the rounds and it is great.

And wait til you hear her

cover of Desireless’ ‘Voyage Voyage’. Haunting doesn’t come close…