by Jordan Stead
Rating: 5/5
photo courtesy of Discogs
Just a little past a year after her passing, Sophie and her transgressive artistry echoes onward. Breaking into the scene in 2015, the Scottish producer’s release of her collection Product (2015) invoked a striking and bubbling sound that saw the beginnings of the outlier music group, PC Music, take shape – a label that took pop and contorted the genre to its very limits. After a quiet hiatus, Sophie returned to the scene in 2018 with her debut album Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides, a joyous, metallic, and loud celebration for LGBT life. Sophie invites her listeners to both an intimate and abrasive listening session, one that both heals and transcends the soul through her use of a ferocious and ethereal soundscape.
From the ecstatic and latex covered tracks such as ‘Ponyboy’ and ‘Faceshopping’ to the melancholic trance-like ballads of ‘Is It Cold in the Water?’ and ‘It’s Okay To Cry’, Sophie gave us just a glimpse of what the future for music would hold in Oil. Each track leaves you exhilarated with a punch to the heart, even more so after the tragic loss of Sophie at the beginning of 2021. In her absence, Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides is a beautiful gift to us, and a testimony of Sophie’s continuous influence in our current music landscape.
