Bleep

After turning heads back in 2017 with her debut LP Penelope One (Optimo) the Australia-born, London-based artist (and one half of The Golden Filter) Penelope Trappes comes through with the follow-up on Houndstooth. Penelope Two is a highly evocative singer-songwriter record. It would be easy to call it neo-noir, particularly when the influence of Julee Cruise and Angelo Badalamenti shines through on cuts like ‘Connector’. However, the near-Gothic strangeness at the heart of many of the songs here sometimes pushes the record into territory akin to modern-day Scott Walker. Trappes’ contemporaries Grouper and Zola Jesus also cast long shadows over Penelope Two.