Tropic of Cancer :: Restless Idylls (Blackest Ever Black)

Slow burning from the start, her singing is sewn into the drone, deep beneath the echo at times.

With a string of gigs, singles and EPs to its credit, first as a duo, LA’s Tropic of Cancer strikes out big time as Camello Lobo’s debut full-length solo album, Restless Idylls. UK techno artist Regis (aka Karl O’Connor), on whose Downward label much of her previous production appeared, plays “studio” on the record, so we can assume that he shares a good portion of the credit for its darkly sound.

Restless Idylls is one big character piece dealing with Lobo’s self-confessed obsession with love as “a chance without a choice,” as stated in an online interview, an evolutionary imperative we follow “like bugs that fly into a bonfire over and over and over.” Slow burning from the start, her singing is sewn into the drone, deep beneath the echo at times, which makes it difficult to assess her songcraft. While the strength of the album lies in its coherent drawl, the song remains the same over a full forty-one minutes—too drear, too dire. The metronomic beat and shimmering synths attract all the attention and the message of the songwriter remains frustratingly inaccessible.

Restless Idylls is available on Blackest Ever Black. [Boomkat]