Psiran are a Bristol-based duo made up of singer and lyricist, Ivy Cairo and producer, composer, and drummer, Emma Holbrook. After meeting in Montpellier and bonding over music, they spent the past two years making their debut album ‘Elevate’.
You can buy the album from their Bandcamp page.
As of yesterday morning, Putin’s vile regime entered Ukraine and began war. Life, as we know it will seemingly never be the same again. It is, unfortunately, but inevitably through this prism, we view this stunning album.
Even at its most beautiful, ‘Elevate’ occupies a dystopian landscape. ‘Pause for Thought’ has a post-apocalyptic ‘1984’ sense of dread coursing through the synths and production. Alongside the Portishead-esques drums and pianos, Cairo builds isolation lyrically ‘All us waifs and strays / Each and every one of us / Floating, falling stumbling along”. Meanwhile, title track ‘Elevation’ it’s hard to escape the inexcusable actions of Putin as Cario decrees ‘they’re calling for quiet / searching for silence’. The track throbs with dissatisfaction but, it doent’t just lay down. A flicker of uprising comes via the celestial orchestration and Cairo’s ability to vocally sit between Dolores O’Riordan and Roisin Murphy.
On ‘Girl Lost’ and ‘The Show’, that hope is ignited into full-scale rebellion. The former is an awakening of hope. A lost soul is offered a helping hand through the explosive drum ‘n’ bass climax. Oozing with love and defiance, they draw a line in the sand and say no further to their ills. With red lines made, ‘The Show’ strides into town resplendent with Radio 4’s (the band) ‘Stealing of a Nation’ bombast to announce the good guys are winning through an illuminating Depeche Mode synth solo.
There are two great post-battle moments on the album. ‘Frozen Frames’, offers Cairo’s best vocal by far. Tinged with pain and regret, she deals with anguish and thoughts of what might have been with an eloquence few can match. Holbrook’s composition here is cinematic and nothing short of Oscar-winning. As the strings chime alone, the loss becomes harrowing and, sadly, images of tanks rolling into Kyiv become impossible to shake.
‘Steal Away’ however, witnesses a broken but not failing spirit rebuilding what it once had. Cairo’s tale is one of a soul twisted inside out, tormented but, refusing to quit. A vice-like grip around the thing/person in question forms with such intense levels of love, it soars heavenly above the drum ‘n’ bass, swooning in and out of the clouds to kiss the rain no matter how torrential it falls.
Then, on ‘Dust It Down’ comes the album’s most accomplished moment. The mindfulness of Massive Attack and the early 90s rave instincts combine to ignite this clarion call of positivity. With Fred Deakin’s sci-fi classic ‘The Lasters’ in their hearts, they erupt into technicolour mesh of Depeche Mode, Lucigenic, and New Order.
With the agony of the lyrics and the sonic insurrection, Cario and Holbrook have announced themselves as a songwriting duo the UK could and should obsess over. They feel more Pete/Carl than Marr/Morrissey. A soulmate connection between the pen and the studio has been forged in blood here and it’s spectacular.