By Jonny Bakes
The chiefs at ÜRHQ often like to keep me on my toes by winging albums over to me that sit pretty firmly outside of my usual sphere of listening. Fortunately, I’m pretty happy diving well out of my comfort zone to experience new and exciting things, particularly when it comes to music. So when this latest curveball arrived in my inbox, I knew exactly what to do. It’s time to take a dive off the deep end and find out what is contained in this special delivery from Penfriend.
Penfriend is the pseudonym of producer, songwriter and talented artist Lara Kidd (formerly She Makes War), under which she has been producing the ‘Attention Engineer’ podcast for the best part of a year. Over this year, the podcast has played host to a revolving door of guest stars, including Frank Turner and Charlotte Hatherley (Solo & Ash) to delve deep into discussion about the creative process but for the 40th episode, the tables were turned and it was Miles Hunt of The Wonder Stuff who took the reins to quiz Laura about her own album ‘Exotic Monsters’. It’s an album that has been written, recorded and released completely independently from Laura’s attic room in Bristol and could well be on the way to be the first Bristol-based female artist to break into the UK Top 40 since 2008, and quite possibly the first ever entirely independent Bristol artist to break into it. So, there’s clearly something deserving of attention with this release.
And that, in a roundabout way, brings me to the record that arrived in my inbox today for my listening pleasure. As I not-so-subtly alluded to before, ‘Exotic Monsters’ is not something that is likely to have been picked up on my own radar which would have been a massive shame to miss, so it’s a good thing it was thrown in my direction! It’s difficult to pin this down to an overarching sound or genre as it’s a culmination of a huge amount of different influences. There’s 80s sounding synth/electronica elements, lo-fi beats, indie/rock guitars, modern pop elements and even drum samples created by the European Space Agency! Each track is more than a little bit different to the last, but the common theme is Laura’s fantastic, and somewhat melancholic vocals. Through these, she covers some deeply personal topics and experiences from throughout her past which you should take notice of even if you don’t personally connect with them.
‘Seventeen’ is just one example of this, and is something that didn’t hit home until the second or third listen when I put my focus on the lyrics. This has a pretty dark undertone to it that harks back to teenage events with a particularly haunting chorus that includes the line “tell me I deserved it, I was seventeen”. To add a sense of unnerving, this track is accompanied by a short piano ditty that resembles something like a circus or sideshow and provides a stark contrast to the guitar driven music that accompanies the rest of the track.
There’s quite a lot to unpack here and the more times that I listen through the album, the more things I pick up. Penfriend is a real powerhouse of independent creativity that shows that it really is possible to go it alone and release cracking music. It’s hard to say who this might appeal to, at times I was reminded of Depeche Mode and Chvrches, but at other points it was bands like Razorlight and Nirvana who sprang to mind (the latter particularly in ‘I’ll Start a Fire’). I’d say this is definitely worth checking out if you’re in the mood for trying something a little different, or perhaps you just want to support some truly independent music, either way give ‘Exotic Monsters’ a listen. If you do that and find yourself really enjoying this album, then it’s well worth listening to Episode 40 of Attention Engineer to find out more about the creative force behind the music too!
- ‘Exotic Monsters’ is released today (Friday 21 May). You can get your copy HERE.
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