Ebsen and the Witch, Violet Cries

This takes me back to some of the doomladen female-fronted bands of my pre-emo youth: psycho but accessible, swirling but not smothering, making the most of high registers and low expectations. Slow-burn openings and stinging titles such as “Eumenides,” “Argyria” “Battlecry-Mimcry” and “Hexagons IV” add a mysticism and menace to the proceedings. Most of these elongated prog-electronic tunes sound like they mean to be accompanying an old arthouse film. That’s not a diss—if someone were to make that film, I’d watch it gladly. Spooky in how it lets light show through its darkness, Violet Cries doesn’t get weepy, just coolly gloomy.