Costanza
ZerOKilled

That 2008 is the new 1996 is clear: the major exponents of trip hop poetics are practically returning to the scene (Portishead, Tricky, Leila, soon Massive Attack as well). In 2008, the debut of a girl came out who, if she didn't live through the years of trip hop herself, certainly found them to be more than just an inspiration. Best known for her famous appearance on Tricky's "Vulnerable", the young Roman singer-songwriter has released "Sonic Diary", her first album, just this month.

Two years earlier, however, she had already appeared on the music market with another work bearing her name: the EP "ZerOKilled". Five tracks that encapsulate the essence of an artist with a mysterious and sensual aura.

The dances of this small, great CD open with "Looking For A Protestation" and nostalgia is already pervasive: the ghosts of Bristol lie in wait in a song between feminist rock and the most muffled beats. Costanza's magic brush draws well-defined musical lines: so minimal, yet so rich, that they do not leave the listener indifferent.

The voice is almost always faint, sweet, yet still moving.

The EP’s masterpiece undoubtedly resides in "Burqa", a splendid ballad, a watercolor of subdued and sepulchral sounds. The singer-songwriter's anger against the exploitation of women lives through her long and sweet sigh, freezing in the ghostly refrain: a harsh phrase that enters the brain like a needle.

The sound is muffled, but also dense, with sudden beats that pierce the heart, culminating in the sonic anger of "All The Girls Get Together And Rule", a fun and syncopated song. Distorted voice in the chorus, sped-up beats, techno-punk cut. Costanza unsheathes the claws in a piece where nastiness reigns over everything, and if the text leaves something to be desired (the usual female revolution), at least the sound of this great song is appreciated, which has absolutely nothing Bristol about it.

If the previous track was a departure from trip hop, even the next seeks to shed the Bristol-Sound label with "Soldier Baby", an acoustic ballad on tiptoe. A cello caresses the strings of the acoustic guitar, while the girl sings a truly enviable melody. It almost seems like a cover of a Lou Reed piece and it’s loveable.

"I've Been Waiting For You" is the plunge into the trip hop abyss. Our artist reshapes her voice in the monotones of Beth Gibbons, seeking a jazzy cut on minimal and poignant sounds. The soul of the song seems to come directly from 1996: melancholic, sensual, aching.

When the record ends, you want more. Even though it doesn't contain musical inventions or noteworthy avant-gardism, "ZerOKilled" is a respectable EP that deserves to be revisited, at least justly for the release of "Sonic Diary", a new masterpiece.

Talented and beautiful.