4 out of 5

Label: On the Camper Records / Africantape

Produced by: ?

Leading into Camilla Sparkss’ debut album, the group – which is comprised of Swiss arty popper Barbara Lehnhoff – dropped about half of the record as individual picture discs. While I would normally question aspects of this approach in the modern-ish musical era when we don’t really buy singles the same way anymore, making this more about the actual collecting / marketing aspect – the artwork; the singles were limited; purposefully building up to an album – gets me on board. The 7″ looks really cool and sounds good, if a bit quiet (which I think can happen with picture discs), and the music:

Europe is a banger. I’m sure it’s politics are even more on the nose than I would assume based on the chorus of “this is shit,” but regardless, its brashness is part of its Peaches-adjacent, electro-scuzzy charm, with Sparkss / Lehnhoff having a proven ability to shift between twee pop elements and big, meaty beats. Some cringe call-out rapping towards the end is maybe where it feels too performative, but okay.

This is Huge flip-flops between NIN industrial Closer-era grimness and pop, with Sparkss listing off cool-kid stuff with snark. It’s not as directly bracing as Europe, but is an equally dense, fun track, proving once more how good Lehnhoff is at keeping songs pretty tonally focused while showing off a skill for layering and genre-hopping.