INDI

Kiwi composer blends folk, classical and prog on first solo LP.

Since rising to fame in her native New Zealand as teenage frontwoman of psychedelic trip hop collective Doprah, Indira Force has branched out into releasing tracks of her own online as well as composing soundtracks for an indie movie and a contemporary dance performance. But apart from a self-released compilation of her early work, this is the first LP she’s released under her own name. She may wrily term her music as “a transdimensional doorway which sly fairies have left slightly ajar for anyone to enter”, but there’s nothing ironic about the sounds she creates. In fact, there’s frequently an eerie quality about it that is positively unsettling. The childlike mandolin and cooing backing vocals of Cair Paravel owe a debt to Joanna Newsom, and the whispering openings of Dementer have a Björkish feel, but their accompaniment is unique, full of disarming, complex rhythms, brooding electronica and atmospheric strings. She’s not above throwing us a hook or two, either. Airportal has a softly yearning melancholic motif accompanied by ghostly handclaps that later mutate into crashes of thunder from distant horizons. A beautifully distinctive debut.