" Dark electronic pop is what they’re tagging Izzie Voodoo’s debut album, The Push, which seems like a pretty accurate description considering its heavy use of fuzzy basses, keyboard effects, electric guitars and skilled mixing, over which a shadow is cast by sultry and sneering vocals with introspective and often sinister lyrics.

Izzie Voodoo does not so much 'push' her way into your consciousness as she does slither and slide like a snake or a curl of smoke with her seductive voice and musical style. Her songs have the sexy stealth of a deep, dark fantasy and the surrealism of a nightmare.

‘Hot Wire’ introduces Voodoo’s sultry vocals, whispered from somewhere within the shadows of a menacing electro beat, while ‘Chaos’ veers into disturbing and sinister territory as Voodoo breathily exclaims that the

time is “3.35 and I’m standing in a room with a gun in my hand in a

hotel room to die for”.

The next track, ‘Xylene’, blackens the album’s dark style and theme further by evoking

the “bittersweet taste” of poison, cyanide vials, ghosts and panic at feelings of entrapment and contamination: “I’m trapped, I can’t breathe, I think I’m falling under…my oxygen is draining out, breathe; there’re toxins in my busy head. I haven’t seen myself for days, breathe”. The fact that her voice is filtered down through the electronica gives the effect of an echo or a ghost – a voice from the shadows, from another planet, or from the tinny netherworld of her thoughts rattling around in her “busy” head.

Neat 17’ also gives an impression that something is flailing or malfunctioning.The song is built up by a random countdown to an

endpoint that could be anywhere or nowhere. “3, 4, 1, 0”, Voodoo smirks. “3, 2, 9, 4, 3”. Meanwhile, ‘Least Resistance’s’ other worldly,spooky sound reminded of electronic French outfit Air’s beautifully disturbing funereal soundtrack to Sofia Coppola’s film The Virgin Suicides.

Y’ Know Me?’ begins with a quick beat like rapping at a door before it peters out into a heady, stream-of-consciousness feel that gives an impression of the singer sitting in a room behind a closed door and lost in her thoughts:

'This band exudes stage presence. Tight electronic sounds, vocals delivered to perfection, bass pumping the floor in a

. vibrant, refreshing, eclectic set with computers, guitars, keyboards, bubbles, smoke, projected images and a tease of hot pants & pvc boots. .....Way above your average gig experience.'

  “I can’t avoid it…I’ve wasted my time waiting in your room”. The introduction of a new melody makes the track then sound like a dark hymn to an epiphany about her relationship.

Voodoo’s playful side emerges with ‘Play Bomb’, a catchy, hooky song that is about her ability to play parts, but her unwillingness to play them for a certain boy: “I play a dream girl, a play girl”, she sings airily. “I know boy, I can see inside your fantasy and I’m waiting for the bomb to blow”. She then informs him that she “don’t play with a boy from another planet, don’t hang with someone who keeps his hands in pockets”. Quirky and upbeat, this track is a stand out.

The Push concludes with ‘The White Line’, a track about escapism from the “hum-drum” and “boring shit” of everyday life: “I want to get high, I want to get laid…go off into the wild blue yonder”, Voodoo purrs as she reminds us that “nothing good has ever come from sitting down”. Indeed, Voodoo’s music is anything but boring, to which her live shows also attest. Described as “dry-ice laden” and “kick-ass”, Voodoo is said to “exude martial arts confidence and full contact Kick Boxing prowess, standing unwavering at the front and smiling at her audience before devouring them alive”. It seems that “nothing ever good has come from sitting still” is her motto.

It is easy to picture the intoxicating command she would have over an audience once you have listened to the album, as it has a similar effect of pushing you through the shadows and undercurrents of its dark fantasy world after it has pulled you right in.

Read our interview with Izzie Voodoo.

Author: Bree Hoskin