Psy’Aviah – Never Look Back/Words (Digital EP – Alfa Matrix)

Genre/Influences: Trip-pop, electro-pop.

Content: Yves Schelpe, the artistic force behind Psy’Aviah has achieved his new full length “Seven Sorrows, Seven Stars”. It will be the 5th official full length by this Belgian formation, which is really hard to define and especially to label as one particular genre.

The electronic eclecticism is without a shadow of a doubt one the band’s main forces, but at the same time still the point making that this band never reached a deserved wider recognition. Every single album sees Yves Schelpe exploring new paths, which are progressively taking a distance with the established electronic-underground patterns like EBM and dark-electro. Since Emelie Nicolaï left the band as the singer, Schelpe started to work with the different guest vocalists and he now again takes his audience by surprise. Ellia Bisker is an American jazzy singer and member of Sweet Soubrette while J. Airi is a Jamaican singer.

“Never Look Back” featuring Ellia Bisker is a sweet, wafting sensation on, which Psy’Aviah explores trip-pop paths. It’s a graceful and deeply artistic creation with a rather warm feeling. This song possibly reveals what the new full length will sound like.

The other title song “Words” featuring J. Airi is an exclusive EP song, which is a bit similar in the genre and especially the delicious reverie part of the song is absolutely great. Psy’Aviah clearly experienced with new ideas, which are miles away from the early –and more danceable stuff.

We next get 3 remixes of “Never Look Back” and 2 remixes of “Words”. And here again Psy’Aviah asked for artists, mainly dealing with other influences and musical genres. The result is quite diverse and sometimes really surprising, and even pretty clubby.

There are 2 potential club remixes of “Never Look Back”. There’s a great groovy and even sexy remix by Gavril’s and other hard pumping remix by label mate Simon Carter. This is a great piece of danceable music, but I also like the way the pure dance lead is coming through.

Another cool remix is the one of “Words” by B-Sight. This producer transposed the original version into a more IDM format and I was deeply impressed by the way the vocals of J. Airi emerge to the surface here. This is a really talented singer.

Both remixes left are not as noticeable although we have to mention the remix of Jean-Marc Lederman (Weathermen).

Conclusion: Psy’Aviah doesn’t care about compromises and established music genres, this band is just moving in a deeply creative way. Even if I’m not sure Psy’Aviah is active in the right scene, this work will catch the attention of open-minded electro-lovers.

Best songs: “Never Look Back – Gavril’s DJ Remix”, “Words – B-Sights Remix”, “Never Look Back – Simon Carter’s Clubbed Up Remix”, “Never Look Back”.

Rate: (DP:8)DP.

Band: www.psyaviah.com / www.facebook.com/psyaviah

Label: www.alfa-matrix.com / www.facebook.com/Alfa.Matrix