Poemss – Poemss

Showing a different side of Planet Mu mainstay Aaron Funk, better known as Venetian Snares, this collaboration with Toronto producer and vocalist Joanne Pollock has none of the brutalist, high-impact weirdness which is Venetian Snares trademark, instead combining languid avant garde synth-pop with modern production flourishes and bizarre, fantastical, sometimes whimsical lyrics. 

"I hereby present you with this hair follicle of an ancient pony, who was once known to save the children in distress," Funk intones in a pitch-bent voice on opener Ancient Pony. This sets the tone; the deeply strange Heads On Heads sounds like a mixture of early Human League produced by Aphex Twin. Moviescapes offers beatless synth washes and a gentle ballad. Pollock's Liz Fraser-esque vocal contributions, on their own, might have felt ephemeral, but tied to the obscure intonations of Funk, something beautiful and unique emerges, a synthesisied phantasmagoria peopled by mythical creatures, full of imagery both menacing and cloyingly sweet.