Value Void Sentimental

London trio Value Void are an offbeat proposition. Paz Maddio and Marta Zabala grew up with each other south of Buenos Aires, where the seeds of this project were sown. Marta first came to London on tour with art punks Los Cripis, where she met Luke Tristram (of Cop, Score and Owner) who released their record via his Unwork label. Paz followed to join them and scrape rent from the city's bars and cafes. By early 2017 the three of them were holed up in practice rooms, Luke adding Evens-esque basslines that laid concrete to their minimalist guitar-lead pop songs. In April of that year, they recorded with Euan Hinshelwood of Young Husband at TVT. The intention was casual but the results, seven dazzlingly assured songs nailed in a couple of days, sucked attention from several quarters as they skipped between hard drives. Upon deciding to flesh the songs out for a full length, they returned to TVT studios with Euan in April this year, tweaking the mix and laying down two new songs: Mind, a down tempo lullaby/lament in which the band track into the territory of early St. Vincent, Grouper or Julianna Barwick, supported by a raw dirge that blossoms in feedback, and The Deluge, which is also reflective but structured by a roaming curiosity and big chorus seeking road movie oblivion. The album is instantly affecting, with an ease and clarity that suits the elegance of the lyrics: coded love songs and cool reflections on life which are all the more vulnerable and touching sung in Paz Maddio's lilting, ultrachromatic voice - a ceramic-sharp diagonal transatlantic on a pure open tone, with subtle waves of vibrato at its top end. It's a particular heart breaker on tracks such as Babeland and Dead Ladies Lament . Restricted to a palette of drums, bass, guitar and double tracked vocals caught on 2 inch tape, coloured here and there with a daub of feedback or a passage of ground-shifting tape delay, this is the sort of thing that gets called stripped back .