Sweetcreem - Bely
SWEETCREEM DROPS DAZZLING ‘BELY’ AND ‘HED’
The dreampop artist known as Sweetcreem recently dropped two two-track EPs. One called Hed, the other called Bely.
Sweetcreem | Photo: Sheri Furneaux
Referring to herself as “a haunted saturnine gospel-pop shaman,” Sweetcreem hails from Boston. Last year, she dropped her debut EP, Evrybdy Know, which received reviews from Boston Hassle and comeherefloyd. Both sites liked it. Neither site offered much in the way of data about the artist, who is almost a complete mystery.
I found an interview Chris Hues of Boston Hassle did with her. The questions are about locales in and around Boston and squirrels and lyme disease, but nothing about her muse, influences, her writing process, or how she got started in music.
Obviously she bedizens herself with random and contradictory symbols and/or is in constant camouflage. So I’ll play along. But only because her music is so superb. Once again, Rawckus has discovered another musician who definitely should be signed but is not.
The two tracks on Hed are “flossvitch” and “rude.” “flossvitch” opens on emergent synth colors, dreamy and opaque, and then flows into a dark yet gleaming dream-pop melody featuring booming percussion and wall-of-sound dynamics. Sweetcreem’s voice, distant yet proximate, exudes potent glistening tones. For a fact, this is what the Sirens who tried to lure Odysseus to his death on the rocks must have sounded like.
For a fact, this is what the Sirens who tried to lure Odysseus to his death on the rocks must have sounded like.
“rude” opens on austere industrial-flavored synths moving into a measured rhythm on a throbbing beat, as Sweetcreem’s scrumptiously chic-deluxe voice rides overhead. There’s a subterranean depth to the harmonics that’s hypnotic.
The second EP, Bely, begins with “smith,” riding horror-flick-flavored synths accented with a sparkling oscillating top-line. The muscular rhythm propels the surging washes of the synths to radiant sonic pinnacles, where Sweetcreem’s voice resides, splendid and evocative.
“brick” travels slowly, drifting, swaying, undulating on iridescent brawny colors on the bottom layer; but up top, on the superior layer, prismatic hues gleam in the sunlight, along with Sweetcreems dreamy, gliding tones, like snow floating across a sea of glass.
Both Hed and Bely are elegant, burnished concoctions of the best dream-pop around. Sweetcreem, whoever she is, has it going on with diamonds.
