Steady by Hyperdawn

If you liked Karma and Desire by Actress, then you'll love Hyperdawn's brand of lo-fi Ambient. Like fellow Northerners Space Afrika, the duo (Vitalija Glovackyte and Michael Cutting) deal in gritty subject matter (life's grim in England innit) through a form of seductively downtempo music that, while not explicitly sugar-coated, carries pleasing Pop tendencies. Steady is actually their second album, following Bleach from 2019, which, through a blend of analogue and digital treatments, now forms their current, accessible, lo-fi aesthetic.

Reigning in their experimentation, Steady is a considerable leap forward in terms of songwriting and composition. Ten twisted torch songs to a past briefly known and loved, Glovackyte's vocals, flitting somewhere between Tirzah and Jonnine Standish, permeate proceedings, making the unpalatable less so; even the vocoder/autotune effect on What have we become is easily digestible. With acoustic guitar, piano, synths and a range of studio trickery, it's a paradoxical balance of sound and subject that works. Hell, you can even sing along to some songs.