As my friend recently put it, “Austra is great to listen to when you feel like listening to Fever Ray but don’t want to go to that dark place.” It’s synth heavy with haunting, ethereal vocals but you could totally put in on your headphones and ride around on your bike feeling like you are on a mission to take on the world.
The dramatic, operatic vocals are front woman, Katie Stelmanis who has recently come into a new sound via an appreciation of house music, merging her incredible range with more catchy, head nodding beats. Not anything ground breaking if you are familiar with Florence and The Machine or Hercules and Love Affair but Austra are out there doing their own thing and working hard at it.
There is no doubt that Austra are going to get more international hype with the release of their debut album, Feel It Break. Take a listen and wrap yourself in a blanket of operatic synth-pop melancholia.