White Noise Supremacists - Shadows EP

An artist with the name of ‘White Noise Supremacists’, based in Berlin – and a solo female one at that? Surely worth checking out purely on that basis alone.

After seeing the following on her Myspace page:

Alright, alright I am obviously against censorship of any kind so I will no longer screen comments. Just don’t be a flaming douche but most importantly don’t just post to plug your shit. Do I come over to your house and spraypaint "THE WHITE NOISE SUPREMACISTS- ON TOUR NOW!!!" on your livingroom wall? No. I don’t. So don’t do it here. If you leave a comment that’s oh so clever, or your pic/name looks interesting, well, people will click on your profile and check you out. I know. I do it all the time. Oh and no huge obnoxious images either. Respeck mah house. If anyone violates these commandments I vow that one day soon I will be found bathing gleefully in a fountain of your blood. Don’t test me. Really. Now…as you were.

I’m convinced even more.

The low-frills recorded EP ‘Shadows’ comes in at a shade under half an hour (give or take – I’ve not added it up exactly), which by other bands I listen to, could count as a full release. Some EPs are just too damn short to give you any sort of substance. Much like eating a babybel for lunch, or having macaroni cheese for dinner when what you’re really after is a big fuckoff Rogan Josh. There’s plenty here to get a grip onto, and a real feel for what Iféoluwa is all about, which is a welcome change. Oh, and if you have any idea how to pronounce her name, you’re a better man than I.

Listed under the ‘acoustic’ moniker on the Myspace genre, I was surprised. To me, acoustic is about samey boring love-ballad crap that any old idiot with a guitar and a few chords can bash out.

Despite the pleasantly grungey production sound from tracks like opener ‘Meant To Be’, the guitar is clean and filled with tone when it needs to be. There’s no desperation to impress with the production; it’s just how it should be – enough to endear, but not in a sympathetic way.

The one down-side comes in the form of the track ‘Glare’; sounding much like any old acoustic track that a teenage girl who’s discovered her dad’s acoustic might write for a school talent show. It lacks the rhythm, movement and purpose of the rest of the EP. Luckily, it’s a minor blip, and skipping it leads to ‘Longwaydown’, which is worlds apart – and I can’t get away from the idea that ‘She’s Soft Inside’ might be what Interpol would have sounded like if they had started out playing pubs and recording demos on tape, with a female at the helm.

Check out the MP3 at the bottom of the page for a taster – where the vocals play a much bigger part, and are beautifully soulful. Much like you might find in a smokey wine bar in a backstreet, although the guitar could have been mixed a bit better to meld it into the whole foray though, in my ever so humble opinion.

Myspace here - where you can buy the EP.

MP3 of ‘How Do You Wish To Go?’ – here.