I’ve always had a penchant for electro pop. Not the happy chart topping variety that made the eighties so special but the darker variety that has long survived outside the confines if the dancefloor.
Therefore, the first thing that I’d like to say about Sykoya is that they don’t sound like a product of the past. They, instead, have a timeless quality that they share with other classy modern day practitioners of sequencing like Nova Heart. The songs could – almost, if they were French – be considered torch songs with the passion found in the lyrics nicely balanced by the cooling antiseptic of the electronics.
It is also unavoidable that I should also mention the voice of Anna Marcella. Always confident and yet always out of reach, she sings like a cypher disguised as a siren. She’s a method actor imprisoned on the stage of the song with her casual melancholy casting deep shadows on all that she sings. Of those songs, the greatest nutritional value will be found in the Sakamoto precision of “Closer” and in the near theatrical “Breathe”.
One for my baby and one for the road but at least I now know her name.