[Read in full on NHAM]

Apophonia by Roberta Fidora

Review by @ashnoodle

Apophonia is a 5 track EP released by Roberta Fidora back in 2023. It’s full of catchy synthpop, and songs with a wistful, melancholic, self-aware, left of centre, humorous touch. All the tracks have a cohesive feel, but with a slightly different take on each.

Shoreliner could almost be a darkwave remix of a 1980s goth pop rock song, and Biarritz drives along with a solid bass sequence and synth string melodies.

All the tracks feel almost like torch songs. I’d love to be in a club and hear danceable tracks such as Biarritz, Is It Too Late For Fan Clubs?, and Shoreliner popping out of the speakers.

Roberta’s vocals soar in places, and this works especially well in the melancholic minimal atmospheric ballad of You Live Alone.

As well as the songs themselves there are a couple of great videos for Biarritz (below), and Is It Too Late For Fan Clubs? featuring a quirky, surreal humour …and puppets. You can find all of her videos over on her Gravitons Peertube channel.

Roberta asks, “I’m playing my tiny violin. Will you listen? Will you listen?” Yes, I will! In fact I’ve got this EP on repeat. Such a great set of tracks.

You can find Apophonia on Roberta’s site.

And you can follow Roberta on Mastodon ( @RobertaFidora).

#review