Jess Makler (unslump.substack.com)
London trio Voka Gentle return with the boisterous Domestic Bliss, fusing musicality and sound design. The group, made up of identical twin sisters Ellie and Imogen Mason, along with William J. Stokes, Imogen’s husband, challenges what sound can be, creating a sonic charcuterie replete with sound art, field recording and industrial, beat-driven pop.
All three members of the band are deeply rooted in the academic world of sound. Stokes writes about music while pursuing a music-related PhD at City University, Ellie is a talented session musician and engineer at Mute Records, and Imogen is studying for an MA in Sound Art while releasing solo art under the moniker sm^sher.
Recorded at London’s City University where the band teaches sound workshops in experimental recording techniques, the group put amps under pianos, captured sounds through snare drums, and sent vocals straight down the phone line (“You Deserve It!”). Other standouts on the record include “Cheddar Man,” a song written for a ten thousand-year-old corpse found in a cave in 1903, “Jude Law for Vogue (1995),” a Radiohead-esque track criticizing beauty as power, and “Creon I,” a spoken-word reflection on Greek myth.
Domestic Bliss isn’t just a record; it’s a study in avant-psych genius. Nearly the entire album was recorded using a binaural head—a microphone designed to replicate the distance between human ears, creating an immersive sound space. The album is overflowing with sounds. Motorbikes, jammed synthesizer keys, bouncing basketballs, the list goes on. The sounds captured remain fragmented, the band highlighting their clear lack of musicality, yet synthesizing them expertly into a danceable post-punk extravaganza.