SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: ALYSSA GENGOS – MECHANICAL SWEETNESS

Alyssa Gengos
Mechanical Sweetness
Egghunt Records

During the nineties it became all the rage to call any combination of folkish, singer songwriter sounds with electronic musical elements folktronica. Unfortunately, things got a bit complicated when artists started bringing in all other sorts of music into their sounds.

Folktronica might be on a backburner these days but bringing in electronic elements into something that can be called singer songwriter sound is actually flourishing, particularly, if your music includes a much wider palette.

This is where Alyssa Gengos, and her ‘formally’ debut album Mechanical Sweetness come in.

If you wonder what ‘formally’ refers to, it is because Gengos previously worked under the Kythira moniker since she was 14.

Whatever she did previously, may or may not have anything to do with what kind of music she’s making now, but it certainly gave her experience and assuredness to come up with an excellent, genre-defying album that is Mechanical Sweetness.

Yes, Gengos, has that subtle melancholy of any good singer songwriter, but she also comes up with the best elements of bedroom pop, that include great melody, the best-of lo-fi experts like R. Stevie Moore, along with touches harking back to the days when Phil Spector was more known for the music, he came up with than his nefariousness. Oh, all accentuated with some subtle electronic touches throughout.

Watch Alyssa and her debut quietly sneak somewhere close to the top of the ‘Best Of The Year’ list coming 2022 holiday season.

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