Keening – Erase (EP – Icy Cold Records)
Genre/Influences: Dream-Pop.
Format: Digital.
Background/Info: Keening is a band driven by British musician Marc Atkinson -who you maybe know from his involvement with The Raudive. This EP has been released as an appetizer to the upcoming album “The Portal”.
Content: The EP features 3 songs taking off with the Dream-Pop driven title song, which is mixing guitar and electronic arrangements. It also is the darkest piece of the production, both other songs being evasive, but less dark.
+ + + : “Erase” is a cool song for its darker touch. Guitar and electronics are complementary.
– – – : Both other songs sound as pure B-sides. They’re pretty long and without diversity, becoming rapidly annoying. I’m also missing passion in the production of the vocals.
Conclusion: “Erase” is not exactly an EP getting me wild for the upcoming album.
Best songs: “Erase”.
Rate: 6.
Listen to “Erase”:
Artist: www.facebook.com/thekeening
Label: www.facebook.com/icycoldrecords
About Keening
Keening is the project of British musician Marc Atkinson, who also plays in the Norwich band The Raudive alongside Chris Watson and Danny Davies. The project name comes from the Gaelic tradition of vocal laments for the dead, and Atkinson describes the music as drawing on cold wave, post-punk and electronic shoegaze.
Icy Cold Records released the “Erase” EP on 15 October 2021. Atkinson wrote the lyrics and music, with Brandon Jacobs on drums for “Erase” and “Spirals”. The label states the EP was written during the first lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic, when one member of the group worked in suicide prevention.
The album the EP announced was issued under the title “The Yellow Portal”, released on CD by Icy Cold Records on 25 March 2022, mixed and mastered by James Aparicio with artwork by Roisin Dunne. Atkinson followed it with “James Francis Diaries” through Dark Liberation Records in 2024.
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I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.
