Brussels based 4-piece Turquoise, return with a new 2-track single, “Voix Off / Tumulte”, via fellow Belgian independent label Freaksville Records, the follow-up of their riveting self-produced debut self-titled EP from more than two years ago.
The band’s distinctive intoxicating combination of enveloping, sparkling new wave and hypnotic introspective shoegaze with bristly post-punk leanings, is further enhanced by a bleak throbbing bass in the foreground, to which is added a hefty dose of vigorous urgency with hints of electro drive.
Frankly, it’s difficult to choose between the two songs, which, despite the difference in moods, are equally intriguing, but, oh my, that bassline!
“Voix Off” deals with inquisitive lyrics that explore feelings of helplessness, deception, and the comfort of others in a post-societal setting of censored unity.
Propelled by steady punchy drum beats, a densely round, phat and prancing bassline, snakily thumping and bouncing with vigorous unremitting intensity, pierced by the emotionally charged edgy shimmers of reverb-laden guitar melodies weaving nostalgic vulnerability, to flutter and resound atop soft painfilled female vocals that ebb and flow in angsty breathless longings, rising desperately into simmering obsessions of fear.
Far more restless and tumultuous, as the title, “Tumulte”, suggests, relentlessly painful and angry vocalizations are fueled by a thumping and pulsating bass switching in ominous wobbling synthetic low ends, persistently penetrated by sharp and sparkling mechanical guitar riffs, while softened by wistful bright keyboard washes, to ooze with urgent dread against a torrent of tyranny in a heartfelt confession drawing from an eerie metaphorical turmoil of hopeless oppression and forced consent.
Although strewn with clear 80s new wave and post-punk suggestions, the Belgian combo’s melancholic and poignant melodic lines, at the same time groovy and dynamic, heightened by the alluring nuanced voice of Sarah Bloom, as vulnerable and dreamy, as it is strong and passionate, is not defined or restrained by their influences, but unceasingly insinuates their distinctive personality; the new single is instant and clear confirmation of this.
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