EP Review: LIYA "Listen" (Blind Mice Productions) by Dave Wolff

Artist: LIYA

Place of origin: Tel Aviv, Israel

Genre: Darkwave, synthpop, electronic

EP: Listen

Label: Blind Mice Productions

Date of release: December 28, 2018

Since the age of five the Israeli musician Liya had a natural predilection toward playing the piano. Even when she was being instructed in traditional approaches to the instrument, she wrote and created from her imagination. Artists and musicians who take to instruments when young always prove to possess a certain adeptness, and on “Listen” Liya is no exception. The fascination that led her to discover piano lasted through her teenage years and into her early twenties, when she was fully immersed in the keyboard, synth and electronic percussion fueled music birthed in the 1980s. Much of what came out then could sound one dimensionally quasi-futuristic, and didn’t last the decade. “Listen” displays more potential to offer, as it’s a multi-layered expansion of what Depeche Mode, Dead Can Dance, The Sisters of Mercy and The Birthday Massacre were and are capable of, which is why those bands still have an audience. The synthpop, electro, darkwave and industrial shades of the EP feature breadth and depth that is felt as well as heard. My first listen admittedly didn’t leave an impression; it first struck me as being typical electronic synthpop. As I listened a few more times my perception shifted toward the thought and care that was channeled into these tracks. Liya’s human elements make “Listen” a cut above the rest. I feel in her presence a droid-human hybrid establishing its existence in the mechanized future noir which is the EP’s predominant theme. With atmosphere and devotion to her inner self, Liya is haunting and beautiful on cerebral and visceral levels, creating a sexuality that is the ideal antithesis of any and all pop divas, with enough musical talent to validate it. She personifies bewitchment of an entirely different caliber; by that virtue she easily out classes the Madonnas and Lady Gaga’s of the entertainment world. Her humanity bleeds over into the multilayered compositions backing her up, especially in “Always About You” and the title cut where she shows she is naturally vulnerable by speaking what’s in her soul. This is one artist who deserves recognition aboveground for taking a chance and heading down her own path. -Dave Wolff

Lineup:
Liya Trebitch: Vocals, all instruments

Track list:
1. Holding On
2. No Meaning
3. Always About You
4. Listen

Poem: 'Rip Me Apart' by S.C.C.

'Rip Me Apart'

By S.C.C.

Throw me into the infinite void, into oblivion.

Ignore me, after all I'm invisible to you.

Ignore my screams, ignore my cries for they aren't there to you.

Goodbye... Joy

Goodbye... Life

Goodbye...

Poem: 'Gravestones in the Grass' by Steven Michael Pape

'Gravestones in the Grass'

By Steven Michael Pape, 19 September 2011 at 19:16

Underneath the underpass

There lies a crooked path

Overgrown with waist high weeds

Gravestones in the grass.

Some where removed

To make way for the road

Others left where they stood

Barren, stark and cold.

Gothic beauty hardly seen

With ancient souls below

The undisturbed marble

A place for grass to grow.

Those that where removed

Are said to haunt this place

Scaring lonely dog walkers

And the oblivious human race.

If you ever walk under here

Passing the high bridge

Take a minute, spare a thought

For those that once did live.

Poem: 'Wake to the Salt!' by Sarah McKellar & Rich Orth

'Wake to the Salt!'

By Sarah McKellar & Rich Orth, 01/27/2019

Once more upon a time,

A woman loved a man,

Before he set sail,

She knew she'd not see him again,

She tasted salty air

Parched lips

trembling despair

Weathered... she dreamt whether

He... the one should return

The storm rose quickly,

Along with the breeze,

As she stood anxiously,

And with horror watched the seas,

Shift and shape

into forms of denial

Wherest she could not wake

From the crest of this wave

Caught in the dream...

of a meandering sea,

Was this a twisted nightmare,

Or a new heartbreaking reality?

So as siren's mist...

Drifted away....

How she knew..oh, how true.

he was gone

Gone this day

Poem: 'Queen of Hearts' by Natasa Nikolic

'Queen of Hearts'

By Natasa Nikolic

Walking alone, pink the sundown

Walking off the beaten path

My eyes attuned to red,

They’ll spot something nice

All my blood leaves the head

Going down without a staircase

Beyond the road, some stones

Further away, wrapped in silver foliage

Mimicking a film, a glaze

Nothing my hands wouldn’t bear

Within, this sight spreads confusion

Naturally I reach for illusion

I tear a vibrating tendon

I found this one, mine alone

It will lessen the pain, another clack

I press it to my chest, and head back

Pulsating, shining and alive

A whole field of it grown here

I feel its roots and sense tenderness

The easy thrill and its soft heat

I left a field of fallen hearts

Forsaken, let this one fall apart

For there is always a new path to take

Tread and walk off, by an undercroft

Head for forest again, passage is hidden

Lurking among mossy meadows

Violet shadows on fallen, powdery snow

Keeping my secret no one shall know

Descend from the peak of the hill

Fall into secretive sundown

Treat me always with spacious warmth

A new pressure spreading on my heart

Poem: 'Mozart' by Craig Michael

'Mozart'

By Craig Michael

It all came to me, came to me in the middle of night.

Visions in my deep sleep, a dream that brought my knowledge to an even greater high.

In my vision I could hear the notes.

It finally came to me, these notes were what Mozart wrote.

And when I awoke, I took my suit off the hanger,

Suddenly I understood the dream,

Mozart was a Head Banger!

He was the master, but not until his death did people really know.

And now even to this day, people gather to hear tribute to his classical show.

But even being such a big influence, he still died a pauper.

Inspired so many musicians, and quite possible even the music of little miss Lauper.

And that should make you feel so proud!

Just makes you want to listen to the Rock, all the more loud.

And Crank the volume, don’t give a damn who it might anger.

Crank it dude, Crank it!

Mozart was a Head Banger…

Now if Mozart was a Head Banger, then how about the rest?

If the ever had the Grammy’s, who would have been the best?

And what about Brahms, what about Mr. Bach?

My dream told me that even they played that heavy metal rock.

Yeah, that’s right you all,

MOZART WAS A HEAD BANGER!

Poem: 'A piece of my heart on the Yule Wreath' by Sarah McKellar

'A piece of my heart on the Yule Wreath'

By Sarah McKellar, Wednesday, 9 January 2019

First year I didn’t get you a present,

First year without a gift,

I raised a tree in your honour,

But your presence was sadly, remiss.

I speak to the heart when I say,

Your honour was raised to the Gods,

I speak on you, most kindly forever,

Just mostly because.

I miss your presence in our lives,

You would be so proud of our babe,

But unfortunately due,

To the consequences we went through,

Our choices were already made.

So be honoured in our wreath on the door,

The raising of trees in the yard,

I spray-painted a tree,

And thought about thee,

We are never truly apart.

For to love someone,

The way I loved you-it’s ridiculous to start,

I’ll leave a piece of my heart on the Yule Wreath,

So we can never be apart.

I love you always and forever.

Poem: 'Four Ways I See the Sun' by Alan Lisanti

'Four Ways I See the Sun'

By Alan Lisanti

They hijacked your name and made you human

A world without light is no world at all

Humble gaze at the sight of fire

Endless energies drawn

The out of reach still eludes me

My mind grows wings for elevation

Sometimes towards the skies at dawn

When lost in realms of imagination

Close the distance if the body's gone

Blind and skewed in captivation

Lock eyes with your voiceless God

When darkness reigns

Your projection muted

Seep on through the darkened song

Dusk's retreat is not surrender

Days are gears in Grandfather's clock

Conceptualize these human concepts

Not untrue just calculated

Measured in relentless seconds

Time is always working hard

Revolutions 'round the centre figure

Bow your head for grander psalms

Upon the surface of the waters

Will to make your presence known

Reflective like divinity's mirror

Wilted roses will hold on

Through the nights that deplete my being

Breathe is scarce, but spirit strong

Poem: Untitled by Dana Lewis

Untitled

By Dana Lewis

Emptiness before you. The temple throbs as the barrel taps against it. Fustration boils as you fight to let loose what is in your head. Just release it and the world will be right. Barrel pressed to the temple, emptiness before you. You sigh, lean back and relax. At last it comes, what you've been looking for. You can do what must be done. CLICK. The barrel falls to the table. What was in your head pours out and fills the emptiness. The barrel rests. Peace settles upon you. At last you can see, your perfect poem has come to be.

Poem: 'I Monster' by Jerry Langdon

'I Monster'

By Jerry Langdon, 2019

Scared off with raging fire,

Driven away by human fears.

Oh, how feeble minds conspire;

Tainting others, contaminating peers.

Their hearts crippled and black;

Cold as the night, they congregate;

Disturbing the peace that I already lack.

With monstrous idiom they agitate.

Forcing my flight from habitual wretchedness.

Driven to unexplorerd regions of purgatory.

Glacieral permafrost is all I witness.

My solitairy distance is concliatory.

Frigid winds are my only companion.

Death knows nothing of my existence.

Life refuses me its attention

My prayers are without audience

And my screams die in endless ice;

As forgotten and exiled as I.

My solitude is my sacrifice.

As unliving as I am, I can not die.