Peace Portal’s most recent entry saw us premiere Maude Vôs’ Swimming Sarahnade, the closing track to their newest EP, Medicinal Properties. Released on May 8 with Glasgow, UK-based label Gravity Pleasure — a self-described “hydrofeminist” unit dedicated to supporting FLINTA artists — Medicinal Properties arrives as the perfect follow-up to Gravity Pleasure’s inaugural release, Water Bodies. After having some time to properly soak up Vôs’ latest offering, we’re back to flesh out our side of things with a full review.
Inspired by “sea swims, country oyster cottages, diner pancakes, snow flurries, geothermal soaks, mossy mornings, and adventures to igneous formations”, the EP is interspersed throughout with tinkles and chimes, the echoes of a bog witch rustling through her charm bag for a spell. Our journey begins with Orr Kore, whose persistent, plodding rhythm pushes forward through a wash of delicate texture. It’s a sonic embarkment; the feeling of excitement and intrigue as adventure commences, steadily moving foot before foot while scenery shifts and changes with quickening subtlety. No time is wasted as we enter Sap Sanctuary, which materializes into a gorgeous flurry of earthy bass, an uptempo invitation into the fairy glen. Next up is Jasmine Season, whose cutty percussion, guttural acidity, and chilled-out dub elements amalgamate as a left-field love song; roots wind around brainstem as Medicinal Properties continues its unfurling.
Endless Fliuch opens with the aching pulse of a primordial heartbeat, swelling into an airborne whirlpool of flickering percussions that orbit a wild acid line; wind whipping up beneath a rising moon. Unfamiliar with the term, I had to look up fliuch; which appears to be a Gaelic word that translates to “wet”, with one website additionally associating fliuch with the term “flowering”. Very fitting for the EP’s shimmering, tidepooled sonosphere. This necessitated linguistic query brings to mind some inspirations mentioned in Medicinal Properties’ liner notes, which cite a cross-continental love and a blurring of timezones, exploring the “emotional bedrock of both kinship and creation.”
Interior Alloy is a sweet, swooning saudade; lush pads punctuated by wet, chirping droplets - like condensation dripping from the mouth of a cavern - as a plucky, heartfelt melody twinkles and twists through the center of the song. It’s this pinkening mood that brings us to Swimming Sarahnade, Medicinal Properties’ swan song, reviewed here by Forrest. Orchestral swells bloom out and upwards, dissolving back into the sea of space-time as the EP draws to a close.
Everything from the album’s artwork to its accompanying words, to, of course, the sonic offerings themselves, interfuse into an alternate dimension which Maude invites us to partake in and nurture, sonically passing forward a particular energy force for listeners to internalize and integrate. Medicinal Properties leaves us mossy and bejeweled, glimmering with hope and intrigue.
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