Skullcrusher singer songwriter Helen Ballentine From: Los Angeles California, USA, performs Soothingly vulnerable folk songs that tug at the heartstrings through the use of minimal instrumentation, lush vocals and detailed lyricism. Those who listen at full volume and with intent, however, may find their brains a tad dented after absorbing this four-song, 11-minute introduction.
Why you’re going to love them: Skullcrusher – aka Helen Ballentine – finds beauty in solitude, with lush acoustics and painstakingly introspective lyrics making up her musical repertoire. Her ghostly yet hypnotic melodies interweave with touches of new-wave horror to create a Brontë-esque aesthetic. The result? An arrestingly fascinating style of musical production with the visuals to match. This track ‘Places/Plans’ on her debut EP.
An avowed Nick Drake devotee who also has exquisite taste in ambient electronic music, Skullcrusher builds songs that seem to creep into the room, reside for a few vague minutes to make their presence known and then fade away. As a guitarist, she likes layering a few different takes to create a web of sound, and she does the same with her voice. By the end of “Places/Plans,” she’s repeating in layered vocal lines the lyric, “I don’t have any plans tomorrow.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the tenor of the times, Skullcrusher leans into solitude at nearly every turn. “Places/Plans,” she writes in release notes, is her attempt “to communicate the beauty and vulnerability of being alone and what it means to let someone else in to see that.”
“Places/Plans” by Skullcrusher, from her debut released self-titled EP out June 26th on Secretly Canadian. For fans of: Faye Webster, Angel Olsen
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