Almost two years after “Sink the Moon”, Astraba are back with Kismet, sounding broader, folkier and more atmospheric. The London quartet still have a taste for unsettling atmospheres, but this time there are also touches of post-punk and psychedelia.
The song pulls you in straight away. It starts off almost acoustic, with guitars, piano and percussion coming in gradually, giving everything plenty of space. Then it keeps growing, becoming more intense and more hypnotic as it goes.
A lot of that pull comes from Emily Lissack‘s voice. It’s clear and delicate, but there’s real strength there too, along with lots of small shifts in tone. At times, especially when the layered vocals come in, she brings Beth Gibbons to mind. There’s something of Portishead in the song’s ghostly, melancholic mood too, although Astraba take it somewhere more organic and closer to folk.
As Kismet develops, it also gets more psychedelic, with a clear Pink Floyd influence and a much bigger, almost cinematic sound. The lyrics match that mood, full of deserts, sapphire skies, water and figures that appear and disappear, as if the whole thing were playing out inside a mirage.
And luckily, we won’t have to wait another two years to hear more: Astraba release their debut EP, Holy Island, on 23 October.
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