Amelia Arsenic - Carbon Black

What do you get when you mix bass heavy electronics with attitude filled hip hop inspired vocal delivery while basing some sounds from industrial influence? You get the debut EP Carbon Black from Amelia Arsenic. Already well known in the alternative scene for her visual arts, fashion design, and past involvement with Angelspit, she's now using all her former experiences combined to unleash her first solo outing.

She easily caught the attention of Blind Mice Productions, headed by Pete Crane and Ben Bulig of SHIV-R, and thus has released the EP through them. With help from the two in writing the EP, as well as being produced by them, this EP has had me itching to get home from wherever I am just to listen to the addicting rhythms and melodies Amelia has put out.

The title track of the EP kicks off with a down tempo beat, solidly expanding a twenty second intro before Amelia hits in with her vocals. Purposefully spoken word with a slight flow to it, the bitter resentment found within the lyrical content shines brightly. It even includes a fairly dark quote from True Detective, and I couldn't help but feel as if it was just all too perfectly placed within the song.

Shifting into a new realm of sound with a more pop-ish approach, Concrete Heart shows off her knack to both sing and once again slam home on the rhythmic spoken word flow that was already established. Not only that, but the music, along with its bass drops, just perfectly go hand in hand with her voice. Not a sound is out of place with this song.

The glitchy vocals within On the Attack inspires cyberpunk like images, and this is one of the tracks where you can really find the roots within hip hop. Now, normally I don't like hip hop by far, but this artist is so easily able to draw me in that I find myself questioning who I am.

Anyway, aside from that personal debacle, T.H.I.R.S.T.Y. came in as the fourth and last track on Carbon Black. More electro in sound than any of the other songs and perhaps being one of the tracks that I could see being used in DJ sets the most, it was equally deserving praise as was the rest of the EP.

And, fuck me if I haven't found quite one of the most addicting releases of January thus far. Amelia Arsenic has just proven that she's just as lethal as a music producer as she is in the fashion industry or whatever else she chooses to dive into. Simply fantastic, I'm definitely looking forward to a full length release by this artist, or at least another EP sometime by the year's end.

This also marks another hit within Blind Mice's collective. I won't be shy in saying that BMP is quickly becoming one of my favorite labels, and also one that I just love keeping my eyes on. With each release, I get giddy, happy, and excited, as they really are putting out new music that just isn't like a lot of other's labels out there. They search for talent, and they find it. And now that Amelia Arsenic's Carbon Black can be added to their library, they have just taken another step forward.

Give your ears something to snack on, and get Carbon Black. Jan 25 2015