180g / Downloadcode / red marbled vinyl. Poli?a are an offshoot of Ryan Olson's Gayngs collective, produced by Olsen and fronted by vocalist Channy Leaneagh. They recorded this debut LP in the wake of Leaneagh's divorce, and its R&B-inspired electronica feels appropriately grief-stricken, fizzing with minor-key synths. Leanagh's laments are often indistinct, lost to a wash of silvery Auto-Tune and cascading reverb, and bolstered by a hybrid of natural and digital beats. Influences fluctuate between styles old and new, evoking shades of Portishead's 90s eeriness in places, while sounding starkly futuristic on the pummeling, siren-strewn stab of Violent Games. Their best arrives mid-album, with the seductive, chiming single Lay Your Cards Out, temporarily collapsing the album's darker tensions in to an aching, cathartic slow jam. The lighter touches – grainy jazz trumpets on Dark Star, funk bass on Leading to Death – suggest a duo set on expanding this heartbroken electronica.
