- Mistress's first EP is sort of like another Halcyon Veil debut, Myth's Evaporate from last year. Both artists handle familiar ideas with a clarity and precision that makes them fresh. For South Londoner Myth it was garage via early Zomby. New Orleans' Mistress is a little more torn in their loyalties: Hollygrove's six sparse tracks criss-cross the Atlantic. The UK connection is grime. "Kanagawa Homicide" riffs on the much-riffed-upon sinogrime, and gets away with it through restraint. Its pentatonic bell-chimes are kept on a tight leash, the bass pulses are stark and clinically precise. "Mjolnir" is a more unusual hybrid, pairing whipcrack beats with billowing dub techno chords.
But it's the US rap-influenced tracks that best showcase Mistress's finely calibrated minimalism. Opener "Lie Dormant" is dead-eyed and lethal, its kicks scuffing up whorls of metallic delay. On the title track, with its pianos and ghostly synths, and "Behemoth," with its background choirs, a sly romanticism starts to peek out. None of it exactly dazzles, but it's never dull either. Only beatless closer "Gatekeeper" is misjudged: its farty, close-voiced chords linger for a couple of minutes too long.
トラックリストA1 Lie Dormant
A2 Hollygrove
A3 Mjolnir
B1 Kanagawa Homicide
B2 Behemoth
B3 Gatekeeper