Review | Indigo De Souza – WHOLESOME EVIL FANTASY EP

Label: Loma Vista Recordings

By Seth White

Established alternative artist Indigo De Souza has recently made her debut with her new label, Loma Vista Recordings, with a fantastically creative effort entitled ‘WHOLESOME EVIL FANTASY’.

The 3-track EP is a real step in a different direction from Indigo’s previous releases, but this is a new age for her as an artist and she’s taken full advantage of the creative freedom she’s been given.

EP opener ‘WHOLESOME’, is a striking electronic dance pop tune which immediately makes you aware of the radical new direction of the project. The song seems to me, akin to the likes of La Roux.

The whole EP is definitely aiming at striking a popular wave in music at the minute. With the dust finally settling from Charli XCX’s dance revival album ‘brat’, we now sit and wait patiently for the wave of dance pop releases inspired by the sort of neo-rave culture put back in the limelight.

The lyrics on this EP are dreamy yet angsty in the best way possible. The high-pitched electronic wail of Indigo’s voice utilised throughout the EP gives the youthful and naive lyricism an irresistible gloss that makes each song extremely dance-worthy.

The other two songs, ‘EVIL’ and ‘FANTASY’, are easily material for people to throw on at a party and get a great reaction. They all capitalise on the range of synthetic sounds at your disposal when operating in this genre and offer thumping dance rhythms which ultimately makeup the concoction of a successful dance pop record.

In the end, Indigo De Souza has done something fairly outlandish with ‘WHOLESOME EVIL FANTASY’. She has seemingly used her new label to attempt to locate a new audience in a wildly popular sub-genre in the current musical climate, which is a bold move by most standards and an impressive step as an artist.

Although I can see possible criticisms coming from a viewpoint of a certain degree of ‘jumping on the bandwagon’ of this dance/rave pop explosion that has reached a point of serious virality in the last year, it does ignore the nature of this EP; it’s hardly a complete 180 in Indigo’s artistic direction, she’s simply exploring new sounds and pushing her capabilities.

In my book, there’s nothing wrong with that at all and this EP is well worth a listen. Whether you’re a long standing fan or you’ve never heard of Indigo De Souza before, give new music a chance! Don’t rush to critique an artist stepping out of their comfort zone, enjoy it.