Poliça
Give You the Ghost
(Memphis Industries)
4****
I remain wary of Auto-Tune, the ubiquitous robotic vocal effect that is going to make today’s pop sound incredibly dated in a decade’s time. Used for something other than its novelty factor, though, it can really work. Bon Iver flirted with the sound’s potential for stark, not-quite-human beauty on his last album, and here Channy Leanagh, his collaborator in the Minneapolis collective Gayngs, takes it still further. She layers her voice over bass, warm synths and clattering beats from two drummers. Lay Your Cards Out is bliss, a slow-motion pulse dominated by that alien, wobbling voice. It doesn’t work so well with teeth, as on the rocky electronica of Violent Games, but lighter moments such as Wandering Star are truly special.
