Stony Sugarskull

Lioness Avant.rock gem from Berlinbased chanteuse.

A vehicle for the vivid imagination of Dr Monika Demmler (a Gaia-influenced German performance artist whose path to self-discovery involved a serious car crash and a trip through America’s Deep South) Stony Sugarskull are, on the evidence of this record, a force to be reckoned with.

Veering between numbskull punk, hazy dream-pop, postrock boogie and paranoia blues, her debut offers up surprises at every turn, her Mazzy Star-ish vocals switching between English and German as smoothly as her music transcends genres. Shot through with a distinctly Berlin ennui and (it says here) recorded with “healing frequencies” embedded into each song, Lioness is a trip from start to finish. ■■■■■■■■■■