Shield Patterns – Violet EP

Violet is a lovingly crafted progression from Contour Lines – the highly acclaimed debut album released in the Summer of 2014. The experimentation found there has been explored further to feature samples made from clicking bones, field recordings, heavy drones and a starker approach to production. On first listen the sound is more minimalistic than that debut album but multiple layers gradually reveal themselves over time. Brentnall’s vocals were singled out for particular praise in early reviews and she has refined her vision further here, with her lyrical concerns focussing on the intimacy of bodies (“drip-feeding” and “mouths”, for example) and her voice arranged into swirling loops like those which introduce and underpin final track ‘Monument’.