Believe Me – Katie Stelmanis (Blocks Recording Club)

Yeah, yeah, so it’s yet ANOTHER classically trained, Italian-Latvian Canadian multi-instrumentalist who’s played for a clutch of hip outfits and has a voice that could wind you if weren’t paying proper attention. Aren’t they ten-a-penny these days? Despite this alarming lack of individuality, Stelmanis audaciously presents her debut single, a charmingly alarming piano ballad that you might not want to listen to on your own with all the lights off.

The bass-heavy intro initially recalls the opening bars of Queen’s Flash Gordon theme, or that Feist one where everybody knows what you’re talking about when you say “that Feist one”. But no matter, it quickly slithers off to settle into a frankly sinister undertow that loiters with intent the entire song. Amid the pounding piano and plucked strings, there’s many a forcefully tuneful plea (“Mother! Believe me!”), tinged with regret and mourning. In short, it sounds like a plea against an unjustified sectioning, screamed from the dusty music room of a provincial mental institution. In a good way, I mean. And she’s got quite the set of pipes. I imagine if you stood her and Bjork directly opposite each other and asked them politely to let rip, you’d have some kind of vocal Large Hadron Collider on your hands, but you’d have to promise not to use its powers for evil.

Paul Oswell