Voice Actor & Squu

𝙎𝙩𝙧𝙤𝙤𝙢’𝙨 𝙢𝙤𝙨𝙩 𝙛ê𝙩𝙚𝙙, 𝙞𝙛 𝙚𝙡𝙪𝙨𝙞𝙫𝙚, 𝙖𝙫𝙖𝙩𝙖𝙧𝙨 𝙧𝙚𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙣 𝙞𝙣 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙗𝙤 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙎𝙦𝙪𝙪 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙖 𝟮𝙣𝙙 𝙖𝙡𝙗𝙪𝙢 𝙤𝙛 𝙝𝙤𝙡𝙤𝙜𝙧𝙖𝙥𝙝𝙞𝙘 𝙖𝙢𝙗𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙙𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙥𝙤𝙚𝙩𝙧𝙮 𝙛𝙤𝙡𝙡𝙤𝙬𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙥𝙝𝙚𝙣𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙖𝙡 ‘𝙎𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙁𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙈𝙮 𝙏𝙚𝙡𝙚𝙥𝙝𝙤𝙣𝙚’ 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙞𝙩𝙨 ‘𝙁𝙖𝙠𝙚 𝙎𝙡𝙚𝙚𝙥’ 𝙫𝙞𝙣𝙮𝙡 𝙚𝙙𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣.

No 100+ track epic here: just the 14 bits of highly seductive downbeat electro-dub, contemporary trip hop waft and ambient shape cutters, each wrapped up in thizzing contrails and of course that voice; a sylph-like presence that flits around the mix in a range of hair-kissing, roll-on-the-carpet bliss outs, icier Heinrich Mueller-type gynoid shivers, and flickering night-light filaments. It all lands exquisitely light on mind with a patented palette of gossamer touch pads and hazed-out thought bubbles of lyrics that fizz into melodic tendrils in ways faithful to the motherload of ’SFMT’, but also a little sharper in its relief, although still soft enough around the edges to slip down effortlessly when received in half-cut states of mind or on your way to slumber.

Re-entering that dream state via the isolation tank of metallic chords and tongue-tip phonemes in ‘You’, Voice Actor tesselate tracks between vignette length and more satisfying bandwidths in their sassy ambient dancehall bop on ‘dYn’, thru an outstanding 2-stepper ‘Nekk’ with a hall of mirrors vocal recalling aspects of Der Zyklus circa ‘Biometry’, to Mica Levi-like ambient prayer ‘Lust is Stronger Than Us’, before revealing themselves from the murk in final move ‘Barbara’, and its reflections on Dolly Parton parting to a chopped ’n screwed outro. There may well be some secret key to the album registered in Stroom’s promo text about the sensuality of farming, or more likely it’s a dry red herring to offset the clear allure of Squu & Voice Actor’s quietly palpable magick on show.

Don’t think twice: it’s a beauty.