Voka Gentle

'hushed intimate moods... Exemplary' The Guardian 

'evokes Yo La Tengo or the Clientele' Stereogum 

‘Hard to classify and even harder not to love’ UNCUT

‘Ambition and self-assured daring’ MOJO 

‘pounding oneiric rhythms... ecstatic heights’ Loud & Quiet 

‘songwriting purists’ The Independent 

London experimental trio Voka Gentle release new album ‘WRITHING!’ today via Leafy Outlook. Across 14 studiously crafted tracks - taking inspiration from artists as disparate as Portishead, Tears For Fears, Jenny Hval, Swans and Animal Collective - the three-piece deliver an engaging second record.  

Operating on a plane between avant-garde indie, bubbling electronica and cosmic psychedelia, with tentative feet still in their dark-folk tinged beginnings,  Voka Gentle have an addictive, amorphous sound. A three limbed beast made up of twins Ellie and Imogen Mason, and William J. Stokes, each is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and producer with an imperious understanding of three dimensional sound.  

Utilising this sonic framework the trio touch on big topics with a deft hand. Present as mere observers, the band have created ‘WRITHING!’ as a dreamstate, full of doors to various scenes, with characters and thematic threads appearing and reappearing throughout. 

Opener ‘Kestrel’ introduces several motifs - chiefly, with recourse to the environment. As the band outline: 

“The album opens with the sound of ice cracking. We wanted to set a precedent for the record’s overarching theme, which is explorative of anxiety in the face of huge events- particularly in the natural world and how humans are threatening the welfare of our planet.” 

It plays on the facets of the human condition which psychologically both feel and cause this damage to the welfare of our planet. Mr. Brown is a character established at this point - inspired by Philip Larkin’s Mr. Bleaney, he serves as a trope for the ordinary-ness of indifference to the struggles of the world, and deliberately facing away from one’s agency to act justly and establish spiritual good. Like the titular Kestrel, it’s easy to hover above in inaction, with the issue in full view. 

This idea of humanity's tension with nature is expanded upon on further tracks. ‘Necrofauna / The Garden of Eden’ ft. Wayne Coyne imagines an invader to the Garden of Eden turning the imagined pastoral perfection on its head with a zest for destruction. ‘Horse Latitudes’ details the point in the doldrums that the ocean’s stillness fatally strands ships. Most innovatively, and directly, ‘Miasma Field Modulator (Trafalgar Square 3.3.2020) ± F∝V + field recs (blackbird/house martin)(feat. Oliver Wilde)’ combines the literal sound of pollution, deduced by a device created by artist and designer Benton Ching, with bird song to generate an eerie ambient track. 

Remaining largely apolitical, reconciliation with identity is however also explored. ‘A Selving’ does this on a  micro level, a ‘self audit’ of sorts - with ‘DREAD/TKOE ft. Bells' zooming out and examining the loss of innocence in an English national pride, spurred by the humiliation and arrogance of the Brexit vote, and its relation to WWII and the like as touchstones of national identity. 

Album centre-piece ‘Respect My Eccentricity’ stands out in its simplicity. A warm bath of sound, it’s a classic piece of songwriting in the vein of Yo La Tengo or Sharon Van Etten, driven by soft Telecaster strums and subtle vocal harmonies. 

‘WRITHING!’ - recorded with neo-metal battalion Pigsx7 guitarist and producer Sam Grant - is the follow-up to 2019’s acclaimed debut album ‘Start Clanging Cymbals’, released via Nude Records (Suede, Juanita Stein). Having paid their dues to establish an unignorable presence with their debut record, there’s a sense of freedom around this second phase for Voka Gentle - an increased confidence in their craft. It’s well earned too - with high praise from the likes of The Guardian, UNCUT, MOJO, Loud & Quiet, Stereogum and The Line of Best Fit at press. Support comes too from BBC 6 Music - including presenting an edition of Stuart Maconie’s Freak Zone - and Radio 1. Tracks from that album also featured on FIFA 19 and The Sims 2020, aiding in recognition. 

A live set at the prestigious Pitchfork Avant Garde festival, as well as a clutch of tastemaker festivals in the UK (Dot to Dot, Live At Leeds, The Great Escape, Kendall Calling, Bluedot, Neighbourhood), alongside serendipitous shows with The Flaming Lips that sparked a creative relationship, and sell-out headline gigs, provide a strong live pedigree.