Austra - Feel It Break

Toronto based trio Austra are a delicate creature - lead singer Katie Stelmanis coming very much from the Florence & The Machine line of affairs, her vocals imbued with that same capacity for intense power; that almost spiritual quality.

The band's music couldn't be further away from good old Florence and Co. though - enter sparkling, energetic synth workouts that sound like they've been conjured up on old eighties hardware dug out of someone's attic. There's mystique here aplenty, an almost baroque, hand-crafted quality - have a listen to standout track Lose It from the band's debut Feel It Break and you'll hear it straight away.

As the titles make clear, this is a record centred around loss and things falling apart - every part of Lose It feeling so tender and like it could shatter in a stiff breeze, only for Katie's vocal to blast through, reinforcing and strengthening again. Mixed by Damian Taylor of Bjork and UNKLE fame, it bears a similar richness and air of innovation as these artists.

It's well worth checking out the mix of her track Beat and the Pulse available to download freely on her website too - all atmospheric, darkly pulsating electronics, it's dance it its most moody and intense. The vocals are kept to a minimum, tweaked into haunting siren-like calls that snake their way around the rubbery bassline.

There's a sense of space, of a vast expanse longing to be filled with emotion - this is a cold, almost icy record; but those vocals come almost as a cry for human contact, a longing to be touched and manipulated.

Feel It Break is out now and available to purchase here.


Austra - Beat and the Pulse (Steffi Bass Break Dub) by DominoRecordCo