ANA DA SILVA & PHEW – Island – CD – SOL2

Island is an album of dark, irresistible electronica, produced by a pair of legendary post-punk artists. Phew started out as the lead singer of Osaka punk band Aunt Sally and by 1981 was working with Can’s Holger Czukay and Jaki Liebezeit on her magnificent, eponymous, debut album, before going on to collaborate with members of Einstürzende Neubauten, and Crime and the City Solution. A few years ago she reinvented herself as an electronic musician and brought her questing, improvisational attitude to her recent albums, Voice Hardcore, Light Sleep and A New World, which featured Deerhoof guitarist John Dieterich. Phew’s latest artistic partner, Ana da Silva, was a founding member and songwriter of The Raincoats, a bunch of North London art school kids who dropped three of the most innovative and astonishing records of the early 80’s. The band reformed in 1993, largely at the request of celebrity super-fan Kurt Cobain, and since then Da Silva has recorded and performed intermittently, not only with The Raincoats but also solo and in collaboration with the likes of Angel Olsen.

Colin Bond / God Is In The TV