Living With Eating Disorders –‘White Like Snow’ EP.



London’s treasured Darkwave quartet, Living With Eating Disorders’ official debut release titled ‘White Like Snow’ is finally upon us all including re-recorded works of two familiar favourites and remixes – here’s the verdict: 

’Lullaby’ as featured on the ‘More Than This’ demo released late last year conveys the band’s ability to lull listeners with a hypnotic contrast. Trip-hop beats create a serene soundscape which itself provides a canvas for rupturing electronics and ornamental vocals where the only cracks to be shown are the element that gives the sound and lyrics their value. If this is to be your first taste of what this band can accomplish then no doubt upon listening to the first track alone, you will instantly be arrested by the immediate ease that immerses you in the ethereal world of Living With Eating Disorders. These are songs that allow you to identify with yet never let you surrender your attention to the performance (albeit it on record or onstage) no matter how much you fall into association.

Like this record’s very own literal lullaby, ‘Arm’ with tranquil verses and elevating choruses that are sombre in their pleas but all the more beautiful with their spoken vulnerability; “White Like Snow, Veined Like Marble, Come Apart, Make Me Happy”… Arms are bared and Living With Eating Disorders are defined in this haunting yet deeply admirable self-exposing hymn. Very much like ‘Lullaby’ and many other songs the band have produced, the personal levels of their music fused with the consuming backdrops conjure the feeling of claustrophobia and yet you simply cannot help but let them envelop you.

The intro to ’Horsemilk’ stews in its own anticipated fury, building into a consistently dense and abrasive backbeat that seems to contend against searing distortion and crunching guitars. Dubious and foreboding vocals heighten the edginess, as you know not before long, the voice of Andrea Kerr will fragment into irrepressible screams of inner scars spoken true. It’s an incredibly intense song that bleeds conviction and a sense of bipolarity with its breathy and alternating confessions; you could almost believe this is the genuine anthem of selling self-hate. 
Immediately after follows remixes of each track in symmetrical order, each offering completely different interpretations of the three previous original tracks successfully and I am usually very fussy when it comes to whether I like remixes or not. The remix of ‘Lullaby’ is especially outstanding featuring Mike Higgis on trumpet, giving the song more of a melancholic and intimate atmosphere.

With this EP release, Living With Eating Disorders prove that there is no room for comparisons, moreover, no need. As much as this band is about four musicians setting out to accomplish and share the sounds that fill their heads, LWED is a safe haven to our own minds.
You wouldn’t believe something so brutal could arrive in a whisper