textura

Albums
36
As Lonely As D. Bowman
John Atkinson
Tom Bell
Big Bend
The Black Dog
Celer
Nicholas Chase
Chronotope Project
Mario Diaz de Leon
Ricardo Donoso
elintseeker
Brian Ellis Group
Ellis & Grainger
Gurun Gurun
Stefano Guzzetti
Heathered Pearls
Helios
Hidden Rivers
Michael Hix
Wayne Horvitz
Indigo Kid
Jerusalem In My Heart
Chad Kettering
The Last Hurrah!!
Legiac
Gary Martin
Josh Mason
Lorenzo Masotto
Andy McLeod
MultiColor
Phaedra
Qwanqwa
Thomas Ragsdale
Reanimator
Steve Roach
Michael Robinson
Steve Roden + Mem1
Santiago Salazar
Dirk Serries
Serries & Zuydervelt
Slow Meadow
Sarah Kirkland Snider
Cara Stacey
Stendeck
Phil Tomsett
Waxwing
Jeppe Zeeberg

Compilations / Mixes / Remixes / Reissues
Deep Love 15
Graveyard Tapes
Photek / H. Agen. / W. Doc.
Positive Flow

EPs / Cassettes / DVDs / Mini-Albums / Singles
DJ Madd
Dragontime
Elika
Henning & Ringler
Ki Oni
Radioson
Danny Scrilla
Selaroda
Rick Wade
Erik Wøllo

Book
Stefan Goldmann

Elika: Girls, Be Serious (three of three)
Saint Marie Records

Arriving a year-and-a-half after the first and eight months after the second, the final seven-inch installment in Elika's Girls, Be Serious trilogy (like its predecessors, limited to 250 copies) once again features two songs only—but what a splendid two songs they are. The Brooklyn outfit—presumably the same individuals featured on the other singles, Evagelia Maravelias and Brian Wenckebach joined by Khaya Lou and Andrew Kwasny—excels at creating soul-stirring dreampop assembled from honey-coated vocals, synths, guitars, and programmed beats.

Chiming guitars and a thrumming beat pulse introduce “Closer,” after which Maravelias's trademark quiver appears to give the song its sultry character (“One step closer, to what we had...”). Alternating between sparkling dreampop verses and soaring, guitar-fueled choruses, the tune entrances for the full measure of its four minutes before the less anthemic but no less captivating “Watch Over Me” weaves multi-layered vocals and buzzsaw guitars into a wistful and haunting ballad presentation. At a mere nine minutes, the third chapter is over fast, but it certainly sounds good when it's playing. Still, the more important question is: what now? Will Elika re-package the three singles into a full-length along with other new material? Let's hope so: the songs released to date would no doubt sound as splendid were they to be heard anew in an album context.

September 2015