Emerging electronic producer / songwriter Celia Eydeland self-released her debut album as Nadoyel ‘So You Could Be The Best Person To Talk About You’ last year, and this download only follow-up EP ‘Haircuts’ was apparently recorded while she was studying in Melbourne, prior to returning to her home in New York. Eydeland apparently chose the title because haircuts usually accompany a significant change in someone’s life, and there’s certainly an underlying feel of emotional upheaval and unrest lurking beneath the five tracks collected here.
‘Obvious’ opens proceedings with a warm, droning synth harmonics bleeding out of the speakers before a ramshackle, off-step drum loop locks into place as Eydeland’s clear vocals rise up out of a swirl of angelic backing harmonies. There’s a dreamy, stream of consciousness feel to her delivery that hints at broken love (“as long as I don’t have to see you with other girls”) that suits the waspy synths that begin to chime into focus, but the sudden ending comes across as abrupt more than anything else. ‘Honesty, Please!’ meanwhile sees punching electro-house rhythms powering beneath vaguely New Order-esque buzzing synth lines and elegant strings as Eydeland’s pop vocal gets cut up and stuttered, but there’s a sense of a truly memorable song not quite being coaxed out of its shell, even amidst all of the production trickery going on.
Far more interesting is the near ambient ‘On Thursdays’, which builds a cavernous sense of space around treated cellos, echoing looped textures and occasional murmurs of acoustic guitar through which Eydeland’s layered vocals trail through like ghosts, in what’s easily one of the most immersive moments here. While there’s the occasional aforementioned sense of the songs’ direction becoming muddled by the production tricks, Nadoyel should be an interesting figure to watch.
