- With a new name which owes more to Uniqlo than to Billy Idol, Brisbane ex-pat Grace Stevenson delivers a new suite of independent groovebox delights under the transformative moniker of Soft Touch. The debut EP Empty Lovers offers a catalogue of different moods and musical approaches which refuses to capitalise on the aesthetically focused industrial pop of Stevenson’s other, older solo electronic music project Rebel Yell.
The first half of the Empty Lovers retains some of the dominant leitmotifs of Rebel Yell’s 2018 debut Hired Muscle. Similar percussive synths, effect flooded vocals and antagonistic lyrics are at the fore on the initial trio of tracks Fright, Touch and Glass. What’s most notably different about these tracks however is an added element of sensitivity and sensuality as well as a departure from Rebel Yell’s attentive production and EBM-style signifiers.
There’s a roughness to the production throughout, and the tracks tend to linger unhurriedly before slowly burning out, offering a distinct retreat from any of the projects’ demanding aesthetic principles. A certain sense of urgency is left behind, but in its place is what feels like a space for a more personal and far reaching exploration of a different styles. Where Rebel Yell dismembered, Soft Touch poisons.
A starkly different tone emerges on Dream Date, faintly reminiscent of '90’s pop hits like Eiffel 65’s Blue (Da Be Dee) it’s pitched shifted and autotuned vocals are clear and ironically poignant. It talks of longing for a lover who reciprocates one’s own affections and a desire for other simple, darkly uncomplicated pleasures like coconut rum and the security to surrender one’s own defences. There is a sense of utter sincerity, which is somewhat bolstered by the comparative straight-facedness of the preceding tracks.
Interestingly, Empty Lovers goes mostly instrumental from here. While there are vocals and maybe even lyrics on Empty, they are indistinguishable amongst the other soaring melodic lines and faintly Afro-Cuban rhythm. It feels like perhaps a bit too much was given away in Dream Date, and the project was pulled back into line a bit prematurely before the new-self had time to really flourish. While the ambience of the closing tracks, Lover and Faint are nice and show another side to the project again, it feels like a shame to gloss out and over the distinct revelations of Dream Date.
What Soft Touch seems to show is the ambivalence of change, whether that be uprooting and moving to a new town or switching up musical personas. Things can come to be much like the old familiar in both spheres, but on a most intimate level they can feel worlds apart. Soft Touch is clear and true to that gentle dislocation. Perhaps Empty Lovers is something of a premature treatise on that experience, and so doesn’t offer a particularly refined or confident outcome, but surely shows the immense creative promise of a young artist exploring an exciting new personal realm.
- Jaden Gallagher.