- I first heard SADAF when she opened for Inga Copeland in Brooklyn in April. With a violin in her hands, she didn't cut the figure of a typical live electronic artist. She played a blistering half-hour set where loops collided and congealed, creating a racket that her voice often struggled to cut through. It was a visceral performance with moments of brilliance hidden in the chaos. I didn't totally grasp it, though it stuck with me. Her debut EP, SHELL, is as bewildering as that concert.
Unlike SADAF's live performances, SHELL's focus is her voice. Childlike squeaks, spoken-word phrases, whimpers, moans and shrieks clash with atonal instrumentation. It's like a haphazard tapestry that can't quite hold itself together. The EP's theme is about trying to make a film without the means or skills to do so. Beginning with unnerving chattering and a sad synth, "OK, I Wrote A Film," hears SADAF detail ripping up her script and starting over—most of the EP has a destructive slant to match. It runs from haywire drill & bass ("Let It Burn," "I Don't Own Anything") and deranged pop ("Thingy") to Velvet Underground-like drone ("Atish"). There are few breathers from her rapid spray of sounds.
With SADAF's violin mostly reduced to scraping squeaks, SHELL is a confrontational record that can feel sparse one moment and dense the next. It's personal but also impenetrable, full of hooks that get washed away by an overspill of ideas. It's an exciting debut that presents a new artist still getting a handle on what she can do. But when she does, the results are tender, intimate and unique.
Tracklist01. OK, I Wrote A Film
02. Let It Burn
03. I Don't Own Anything
04. Your Love Is A Hospital
05. Atish
06. Thingy
07. Walk On Water
08. Vita Char
09. Ashes Of Control