Review by Ben Connolly
What is the collective noun for a group of fuzzed-out guitars? Is it a gaggle? Maybe a cacophony is more apt? Perhaps it could have been a murder, if it weren’t already taken by those pesky crows. I reckon it’s a joy of fuzz, as that’s certainly the feeling you get when confronted with a wail of tricked out pedal-laden guitars, as was the case at Yuck’s Laneway Festival sideshow, as well as a more than passing hat-tip to the lo-fi aesthetics of late 80s and early 90s grunge rock.

South Dakota via LAs EMA had her feet planted firmly in the shoe-gazing psychedelia camp, with two guitars backed by keys/violins providing a mournful, sparse feeling. There’s a deliberate bleakness to the songs, with Erika M Anderson’s lyrics often whispered with great earnestness and calculated affectation. An early string break forced a setlist change, pushing a surprisingly tender “Breakfest” up the order. The song’s aching repeated refrain “Mumma’s in the bedroom, don’t you stop” paints a desolate picture, before building into a Mogwai-esque wall-of-noise. A midset reworking of Danzig’s “Soul On Fire” perfectly highlighted Anderson’s almost disembodied, affected vocals.
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