Admittedly: Eliot Paulina Sumner has been making music for over ten years, both under her real name and with different identities like I Blame Coco. Yet the daughter of Gordon Matthew Sumner – aka Sting – has still not achieved a breakthrough, neither with the synth pop from »The Constant« (2010), nor with spirited indie albums like »Information« (2016) or her releases as semi- androgynous solo producer Vaal. Not to mention her commercial ambitions – but that’s not what this versatile musician is all about. Even her début album »Nosferatu« (2019) shows that she is inspired by the intelligently structured breakbeats of the Ilian Tape kind, unconventional melodic progressions, as well as the industrially oppressive techno style that outstanding artists like Maenad Veyl or Restive Plaggona made popular in the underground in the 2010s. Vaal also formulates an independent musical vision with »Reversed«. Sumner welds together Nu Skool Breaks, UK Garage, Tech House and much more into twelve eclectic tracks that all want to be heard and explored more than once. Stylistically, this doesn’t always seem to have been thought through to the last bar, and Sumner can certainly still learn a thing or two when it comes to sample quality, but with so much courage and a feel for unobtrusively futuristic arrangements, the chances are pretty good that she’ll unleash a real uncut gem on the world sooner or later.
Love Reversed
