Premiere: Elaine Howley – To The Test

Music

A deeply personal long player from the Irish singer and musician on Touch Sensitive.

The rain came down harder than ever before today, it left thick streaks down the windows that obscured the outside world. It seemed to mirror her mood; no matter how much she tried, she couldn’t read him at all – his mouth said one thing but his eyes said something completely different. Unbeknownst to him she’d already been putting their relationship to the test, and as it stood he wasn’t set to pass with flying colours.

Cork-based singer and musician Elaine Howley has made a name for herself in Ireland’s underground music scene as part of several groups, Crevice, Howlbux and The Altered Hours. As a solo artist her work is intimate and personal, weaving together dusty, textural motifs and lo-fi ditties that suck you into her sonic world. Her newest LP, The Distance Between Heart and Mouth, takes a diaristic form. Recorded on a four-track cassette machine during 2019 and 2020, the nine tracks are guided by Elaine’s distant, wistful vocals which sit on a bed of sounds that touch on dub, alt-pop, soul, chanson and psychedelic folk, reminiscent of artists like Broadcast, Leslie Winer and Tirzah.