sister crayon Bellow (LP, £12.50)

“California scenesters deliver avant-garde pop masterclass” Q Magazine // “Comparisons with the likes of Bat For Lashes, Kate bush and label mates Warpaint have been made and certainly paint adequate reference points, but Sister Crayon have created their own soundthat may well appeal to the darker side of 2011” GQ // Limited edition Vinyl pressing with download card of this release from earlier this year. Something small and quiet at first, Sister Crayon began with vocalist Terra Lopez playing classical guitar and pre-programmed beats on a loop pedal to attentive house crowds. With the addition of members Dani Fernandez (MPC 1000 and Microkorg), Genaro Ulloa (Keyboards and Synths) and Nicholas Suhr (Drums and Percussion), Sister Crayon has emerged as a four-piece whose emotional live performances along with their styles of ambience, hip-hop, and “hysterical” have created a stir with their upcoming LP release (Bellow) Inspired by the late French writer Jean Genet, It is a sexual lament and sigh to the popular criminal. Sister Crayon has toured nationally with Baths and will tour internationally in 2011. Their music has been praised by publications across the globe from Dazed & Confused, NME, LA Weekly and Elle Magzine. Crayon has created quite a stir with their inspiring performances playing alongside folks like Baths, School of Seven Bells, Busdriver, Warpaint (who they put a split 7” out with), Truckasaurus, among many others in their brief existence as a band. The record is a representation of the evolution of Sister Crayon from the solo beginnings of quiet, dark songwriting to the powerful, dynamic, full band construction. One out of many standouts, "Anti Psalm" is an ode to religious antics and absent fathers weaving 808 beats with analog synths while Lopez's vocals (along with guest vocalists Jules Baenziger of Sea of Bees and Caitlin Gutenberger of Two Sheds) create haunting doo-wop harmonies. "Stem", a moody track that ebbs and flows, creating a wave of synths, piano, drums, and an eight person choral chant mid-song. Other standouts are the galloping "I'm Still The Same Person" and the head-nodding R&B swagger of "(In) Reverse", which showcases the band's electronic leanings with pulsing MPC beats, trippy analog sequencers, and manic vocal layers. Track listing : I’m Still the Same Person, Here We Never Die, And Glass…, (In) Reverse, Every Third Hour, Anti-Psalm, Thief-Boxer Asleep, Stem, Ixchel The Lady Rainbow, Souls of Gold