The Golden Filter
‘Voluspa’
(Brille)

There’s no shortage of auric-aligned combos currently tipped for greatness (Goldhawks, Goldheart Assembly, etc), but New York’s The Golden Filter are more mythic than most. There was an otherworldly obliqueness to last year’s post-new rave belter ‘Solid Gold’, of course, and ‘Moonlight Fantasy’’s lent an arcane air by its eerie strings and wiry bass, while ‘Freiya’s Ghost’ and ‘Nerida’s Gone’ are genuinely fantastical. Yet, they’re even more magical when their aim’s more earthbound: ‘Kiss Her Goodbye’ revels in a sweeping-plains sturm und drang, ‘The Underdogs’ is flotation chansonnery with bonus twinkle, and ‘Look Me In The Eye’ makes for a decidedly happy marriage of motorik futurism, breathy provocativeness, and pogo glowstickerry, all colliding to render ‘Voluspa’ something of a precious debut.

Iain Moffat