Soap&Skin - Lovetune For Vacuum

Running through this haunting record there appears to be a key theme, or repeated motif, of the "natural" and organic juxtaposed with the synthesised, man-made or mechanical, reflected in the choice of instrumentation. Plaschg is a proficient pianist, and many tracks sound like classical compositions (in particular Cynthia, but also the piano-led parts of Sleep, Extinguish Me, and Turbine Womb), also using orchestral-sounding strings to evoke a range of emotions. The yang to that ying, though, is provided by her inclusion, too, of lots of pointedly non-natural sounds.

A kind of mechanical, strangely 19th century sounding whirring clicking sound is used to great effect on Sleep, Cry Wolf and Turbine Womb - possibly a camera's shutter clicking. In other places deliberately jarring or abrasive sound effects are introduced, like the shrill electronically-generated whistle sound in March Funebre, or the synths used in Fall Foliage, The Sun and DDMMYYYY, the latter being an almost totally glitch-based instrumental track which almost sounds like it has landed on the wrong album, perhaps having been displaced from a natural home at the more experimental end of the electro/Krautrock spectrum.

Also key to Soap & Skin's unique sound is the astonishing vocal. It is probably this, as much as the backing, which endows the album with such a particular - part haunting and troubling, part touching and melancholic - atmosphere. Sometimes deep and sombre sounding, but at other times high and fluttering or almost choral, Plaschg uses her voice like she uses the piano: to the full extent of its range (listen to how the tune reaches down to those very deepest piano keys that are never normally used, on The Sun, and then how the voice soars and semi-screams, right at the top of her register, on Spiracle and Cry Wolf). The charm of the accented English in which she sings certainly adds to the effect, but this most certainly isn't a case of "kooky non-English female vocal" syndrome: there is much much more at play here.

If DDMMYYYY is the least representative track here, then March Funebre is probably the most, in which the full repertoire of effects is deployed, from harsh-sounding synths, to piano, shouts, and solemn singing. This is not an easy, nor a light album, and occasionally (only very occasionally) can become a little too am-dram (Thanatos, parts of The Sun). Lyrically, too, it's quite impenetrable, with the mood of each song being more effectively conveyed through the way they sounded than anything specific that was said in them.

If this is the kind of art - and it is art - that this young woman is making at 18 then I can only imagine the heights she will reach in future. Not only one to watch - very much one to discover right now, on this extraordinary piece of work.

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