Now 23, Moyka returns with a follow-up EP to 2019’s Colder, entitled Spaces. Apparently having spent the last year dealing with the death of a long-term relationship, this fact seems to have had quite an impact on the five pieces that make up the Spaces EP.
The words are heavy with regret, acceptance of things being over, and a young woman’s reaction to the loss of a long-term love. But strangely enough, they’re flung at us, sometimes repeated over and over, with what overwhelmingly sounds like a fierce joy; in fact there is a palpable sense of newly found freedom.
“A lighter touch, shades of Björk and a definitively Scandinavian pop chorus”
Opener and title track Spaces employs heavy – and effective – synth use and a driving beat to underpin a song that is all about this relationship coming to an end – so why does it sound so damn joyous? “You’re in my mind like a bad habit / I know that we’re over” is made to sound like a happy looking-forward than a painful looking-back.
“Aerated synth swells froth and bubble before stretching out to breathe above the clouds”
Backwards has a lighter touch, shades of Björk and a definitively Scandinavian pop chorus; Kanazawa’s “Maybe We Don’t Have to Go There” talks about a trip that she and her lover will no longer have to take – but it’s okay since she’s taken the trip in her mind so many times.
+++Check out our review of last year’s Moyka single Ride+++
“A strange juxtaposition of negative thoughts and joyous sound”
Calling the third number on the EP Intro is a nice quirk: here aerated synth swells froth and bubble before stretching out to breathe above the clouds; a pulsating synth beat swarms in; there’s a single human cry; and then it’s over.
On the final track Violet Moyka sings “This is not who we thought we’d be”, and it continues the vibe of the strange juxtaposition of negative thoughts and joyous sound.
Moyka comes across as a talented and determined artist, resolute in her ambition to have us all under her spell. A great second EP suggests the promise of even greater things to come.
