Spivak

Spivak

You Win Again

Ecstatic Recordings

Bursting with bittersweet, memorable songs, Maria Spivak follows her spectacular and highly sought-after debut album with this new LP for Ecstatic, operating at the intersection of blazed synthpop, folk and shoegaze with a sparkling Drexciyan dimension. Real strong gear that comes highly recommended if yr into anything from Cocteau Twins to Junior Boys, Jonnine to Jessy Lanza. One of those records that feels like a god-sent breeze at the peak of a mediterranean heatwave, on ‘You Win Again’ Maria Spivak builds on the charmed pulse of 2020's 'Met'a To P'eib = Μετά Το Ρέιβ' and its 2021 follow-up 'Rare Backwards' to assemble nine tightly-wound songs that hover at the intersection of shimmering wave mutations and sunset love songs. It's a highly satisfying mix that oozes longing and regret, revealing itself on opener 'Mid Week Ritual' where Spivak's gently auto-tuned voice rides the kind of lonesome acoustic guitar you’d expect to hear on a Grouper record. On ‘My Loneliness is Healing Me’, she transports the countrified charm of The Breeders’ ‘Title TK’ to the Cypriot wilds, exclaiming in the most sardonic terms that “I hate the winter, and all it does, to all my friends, and everyone I've ever met” over two minutes that reek of wistful sentimentality. 'Golden Boy' offsets jerky rhythms against Spivak's resonating voice like some blessed outtake from Junior Boys’ classic ’So This Is Goodbye’ - the kind of tune that drips with nostalgia from the very first listen, while ’Risk &...

Spivak

Μετά Το Ρέιβ

Ecstatic Recordings

“Spivak first came to our attention with her guest vocals on Jay Glass Dubs acclaimed album '’Soma’ and here arrives fully formed with a quietly penetrative sound, layering her haunted but coolly melodic vocals and synth pads around bare-bones, DIY production that makes a virtue of “mistakes” and grit in-the-mix. Lessons from ’80s post-punk to ambient-pop and trip hop inform Spivak’s music as much as her observations on Cypriot sociopolitics, culture, and nature. But the references are more suggestive than concrete, often imperceptibly woven into her songs with a fine sort of folk art filigree that feels timeless but directly effective within her field, recalling the low-key magick of everyone from Teresa Winter to HTRK, yet gauzily delivered from her own, enchanted perspective. Spivak has worked towards this seemingly effortless style and conception of atmosphere for a decade, flowering from MA studies in Architecture in the UK, to develop her roots in Cyprus, where she draws on the energies of a small but active local scene, as well as the island’s agitated recent history, against a backdrop of myth-inspiring topography, that all help imbue her style of sound sculpture with a distinctive, quietly conflicted soul.  Her first bouquet of songs are intimate but prickly, ancient and futuristic creations, unfurling from primitive dream-pop in ‘Minus The motivational Speech’, to the nerve-tweaking chamber blooz of ‘Hardware Store Ballad’ with a deeply arresting, story-telling style that’s naturally brought to life in the music; from the ephemeral sensuality of ‘Sec’, sounding like Lena...