Kissing Cousins

EP3

(Velvet Blue)

Record Review by Marcel Feldmar

Starting out with a sort of gothic classical Rasputina vibe, and then PJ Harvey vocals pushing into the mix, strained and hushed and seductive, these Kissing Cousins immediately enchant. Four songs (and one video) that effortlessly hypnotize and push you into a more dark and beautiful realm. The classical strains of “Weigh The World” slip and sway like discordant beauty. Touched with a shadow of menace and destruction, these songs are barely holding some dark explosion at bay. This hits harder with the second song, flying out of the darkness of the previous song into a raw guitar rocker that hits like some outtake from PJ’s Rid Of Me, but with some tighter, maybe Concrete Blonde moves.

The third song steps in yet another direction, recorded live, “Silhouettes” almost sounds like an instrumental, but it’s just that on this version the vocals a pretty much buried in the mix. The video is for the same song, so you can hear where the words go a little better, but the live version has an extra element of depth somehow. The gritty melodics carry through the goth touched emotions. While not completely a cohesive EP here, it definitely serves to pique the interest and get you waiting anxiously for more.