This is Carla dal Forno's debut solo album, following time in cult Melbourne group Mole House and
an earlier association with Blackest Ever Black as a member of F ingers and Tarcar. Her voice is an
extraordinary instrument: both disarmingly conversational and glacially detached. It has something of
the bedsit urbanity of Anna Domino, Marine Girls, Antena, or Helen Johnstone - stoned and deadpan
- but it can also summon a gothic intensity that Nico or Kendra Smith would approve of. This voice is the perfect embodiment of
dal Forno's emotionally ambiguous songs: their lyrics rooted in the everyday, observing and exposing a series of uncomfortable
truths. 'Fast Moving Cars' and 'What You Gonna Do Now?' weigh up claustrophobia against loneliness, inertia against accelera-
tion, doubling down versus taking off; the title track acknowledges the provisional nature of love and "real" intimacy, then decides
to brave it anyway. By the time we arrive at the startlingly sparse 'The Same Reply', the sense of dejection is absolute. The vocal-
led pieces are interspersed with richly evocative instrumentals. Smothered in tape-hiss and reverb, the seasick synthesizer minia-
tures 'Italian Cinema' and 'Dragon Breath' channel the twilit DIY whimsy of Flaming Tunes and Call Back The Giants. 'DB Rip's
drum machine and bassline are pure Chicago house, but then its dark choral drones nod to Dalis Car's dreams of blood-spattered
Cornwall stone. 'Dry The Rain' drinks from a stream of moon musick that runs through Coil, In Gowan Ring, Third Ear Band, even
the Raincoats' Odyshape.