Emika: Emika – review

This long-gestating debut by Emika, a UK-born singer and producer of Czech origin currently residing in Berlin, is an intriguing work: dark, seductive and as hard to pin down as its creator. Her atmospheric sound, slow-burning and bass-heavy, owes a debt to Bristol, Emika's former home, and the influence of Portishead can be heard in her crystalline vocals, but it doesn't define her. Berlin has had an effect, too, and the care with which she has programmed the sonic landscape of tracks such as "Drop the Other" speaks of an immersion in that city's techno scene. No bad thing.