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Cara Tolmie & Rian Treanor

From a series of charged improvisational performances, the duo of Cara Tolmie and Rian Treanor developed their exciting debut album. Body Lapse (2025), on label Planet Mu, harnesses the kinetic energy of their live performances into a document of pounding rhythms and vocal intensity. On one side of the collaboration, Treanor's crisp, bassy, and often minimal productions form the bedrock upon which Tolmie, on the other side, builds pillars of sound with her incredible voice – moving between poetic spoken word and bristling exasperated singing, at times recalling the trembling vocal outbursts of early Björk. She speaks and sings stream-of-consciousness incantations through her somatic and self-developed internal singing technique. Treanor plays with her voice, chopping up samples, creating a mimicking effect that weaves magically into the duo's disorienting and surreal music. Flirting with PC music aesthetics and hyper-pop frequencies, the music is at times squeaky and staccato, but there is always a rave-inspired barrage of bass waiting around the corner. Between Treanor's bassy interventions and Tolmie's erupting vocals there is a sense of push and pull, encapsulated perfectly by the duo's ecstatic and bodily live performances.