Yola Fatoush caught my attention a few months ago as part of Deathbomb Arc’s digital singles club, and now the London duo has released a cassette on the label. Their sound takes influence from pop and R&B, as is de rigueur with a lot of underground music these days, but there’s something about the way this duo does it that I’m really intrigued by. There’s plenty of melodicism inspired by classic house music, some complex rhythmic and vocal arrangements, and generally a lot of heartfelt songwriting. It’s clearly recognizable as coming from a lo-fi background (lots of tinny synth sounds, which work well here) but they do a lot with what they have. “Stop Shining” was one of the tracks from the digital single, and it’s presented here with a much clearer mix, giving more attention to the vocal harmonies (I didn’t even notice the male vocals in the older mix). “The Info” sounds like a dark ’90s slow jam that gets sidetracked by strange whirring noises and ends early. “My Presence Here” starts off sounding like a minimal, lo-fi take on Chicago juke, but the vocals and melody, as well as the harpsichord-like keyboard tones, could’ve come from an early Magnetic Fields record. “In The Holiest Place” takes almost a minute of male vocals and garage-y keyboard tones before the beat comes in, which is accompanied by female vocals and a haunting vocal sample. “I Like” ends the tape with nothing more than slow monk-like chanting in a large echo chamber. Only a few of the nine tracks here exceed three minutes, and while they could’ve just kept looping some of these ideas to keep the songs longer for the dancefloor, you get they feeling they tried to keep things succint to make them more personal. Really an incredible, sometimes heartbreaking debut. On Bandcamp if you want to check it out right now.
