The Mantra ATSMM - Rooms EP

‘Rooms’ is all slinky minimalism and crystalline guitars, occasionally beefed up with cacophonous blasts of distortion...

Rating: 7Hailing from Italy and signed to electronica label RareNoise, you’d be forgiven for being a little surprised that The Mantra ATSMM’s debut EP casts the quartet as badass cousins to Britain’s own The XX. ‘Rooms’ is all slinky minimalism and crystalline guitars, occasionally beefed up with cacophonous blasts of distortion. Okay, they’re kinda gothy, vocalist Adriana Salomone frequently trading actual lyrics for ethereal devil child noises, but they don’t ham it up, and the title track in particular is a masterclass in soothingly sinister restraint. Whether they follow this route remains to be seen: the nightmarish finale ‘Friend With A Knife’ suggests they’re more than familiar with countryfolk Goblin.

For fans of: The XX, This Mortal Coil

Andrzej Lukowski