I've seen the music of Camomile Dawn described as "house" or "dance music". Which isn't really all that accurate. I struggle with each of those labels. The four tracks found on the Bruttissimo EP play out rather more like a frayed-around-the-edges form of synthpop. Equal portions melodrama, psychedelia, and melancholia. Not unlike the Cocteau Twins, yet not really like the Cocteau Twins at all. And that’s without even starting on the (lack of) requisite bpm factor. If this is dance music, then it’s dance music for dancing on the inside. Little head bobs, finger taps, and warm brain fuzzies. That sort of thing.
Art is seldom so black and white. Bruttissimo is moody grey, with flecks of sunlight peeking through. Presented with a stylish French sheen. It all works quite well. Except perhaps for the EP cover design, which looks a little bit like one of those paint-by-numbers canvas artworks my dear old Gran used to occupy her time with.
Whatever else it is, the EP is one of the best short form releases I’ve heard all year.
Joe Muggs kind of nails it in his write-up for “The Best Electronic Music on
Bandcamp”, August 2021:
"Just when you think there can’t be more mileage in fizzy, nostalgic, lo-fi house, here comes another alias of Turkish producer Sumatran Black to make it feel fresh again. All the signifiers are here: The voyeuristic feeling of finding an old VHS of someone else’s wedding, the cosmopolitan and stylish voiceovers, the fizz that becomes part of the instruments. It’s rich, it’s romantic, it’s irresistible."
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