Spivak - Rare Backwards (2021)

Maria Spivak follows her instantly sold-out debut album 'Μετά Το Ρέιβ' with this killer 30 minute addendum, a stunning set of slow-pulsing torch/pop songs that once again mine that brilliantly original sweetspot between Lena Platonos, Cocteau Twins and James Stinson’s Other People Place.

'Rare Backwards’ reaffirms the unusual, addictive nature of Spivak’s music, coloured with a nagging sense of déjà vu-like familiarity, with traces of midnight Detroit pads thru to ‘80s synth wave and trip hop all palpable and complementary to the depth of her forlorn Greek new age soul. In somnambulant steps that barely touch the floor, the album’s song sequence elegantly drifts from wordless underwater ballads to devastating ‘60s pop in Club Silencio style channelling Lynch via Cindy Lee, seamlessly taking in ambient jungle à la Teresa Winter’s finest in her stride, along with dance music primed for glyding mediterranean terrace tiles, and star-gazing synth scenes for nocturnal beach missions.

On the A-side, the simmering asymmetry is most striking on ’18:00', like a sunkissed counterpart to Cocteau Twins ‘Otterley’, but instead of grey industrial vistas we’re at golden hour, all melancholy and youthful possibility in the breezy summer air. 'Make It Make Sense’ follows and riffs on The Other People Place’s ‘Lifestyles Of The Casual’ with added amens and a vocal hook that makes us think of Masha Qrella’s overlooked, singular style. 'A Pause’ on the flipside, meantime, unspools like a delirious echo of Julee Cruise's 'Say Goodbye’, all romance, yearning and heartsick blues.

Of course it will all evince myriad feelings in others, but we’re completely taken by the late night allure and height-of-summer madness that makes Spivak's music so incredibly seductive, especially if you like your sonic signposts low lit, flickering and full of nostalgia. If you do - this one’s a total pearl.