by Philip Moss

One’s relationship with self has never been more important, or indeed highlighted, following the drastic shift in routine and liberty that has occurred over recent weeks and months. And through this period, one’s relationship with music has – for many – been a shining beacon through the gloom. For Julia-Sophie, that attachment to song and noise has been the way in which she has been dealing with her relationship with self and others over recent years, and the result is y? – her self-released new EP.

Electronic percussion is a dominant part of the Oxford based songwriter’s sphere. xOx’s persistent thud underpins her hypnotic, monochrome voice. It’s raw, frantic, brutal – recalling a wild Thom Yorke, as she notes – ‘It’s hard to shake feelings I have / makes time pass slow’ – as if the self-imposed isolating prepared her for the lockdown we’ve now all faced.

Elsewhere, breathe, has those same FKA Twigs evoking beats, but its chorus is sweetly addictive  – juxtaposing the hard rhythms – and reminding us of what it’s like to take a lung full of air. While the interluding, i told you everything, skews a Kraftwerk algorithm through the Daft Punk’s modulator, before the EP reaches its conclusion at its highest and gentlest point – i left you.

Cool, twisted, open and bare – Julia-Sophie describes the EP as her ‘heart in a tape’ – go listen to it beat.

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