Track of the Day: Elaine Howley - 'To The Test'

Taken from Elaine Howley's new album The Distance Between Heart and Mouth, 'To The Test' opens eerily with the distant sound of muddled white noise, before an acoustic guitar strums.

A jazz-infused alternative track, 'To The Test' has a distinctive ethereal quality that elevates Howley's unique style of creating soundscapes. It's smouldering solo work at its best. The Cork-based prolific member of The Altered Hours made the album from an audio diary recorded across 2019 and 2020.

The LP sees Howley voyage into pop experimentations: “I was thinking a lot about the themes of silencing and communication,” she explains. “My voice and a lot of my feelings were buried and I wanted to push that out using music.”

Howley’s projects (including Morning Veils, Crevice) established her voice in the Irish underground, but The Distance Between Heart and Mouth may thrust her further into mainstream circles.

Comparisons with Trish Keenan, Lida Husik and Jenny Hval are deserved, featuring a hypnotic, raw trip-hop loop on numerous tracks.

Full of lo-fo production, dreamy nostalgia, grainy lightness, surreal sprechstimme, softly gliding vocals over crunchy, angular beats and samples; Elaine Howley's audio diary is fascinating to behold.

Listen to 'To The Test' below.