Marika Hackman may look like just another girl with a guitar, but dig deeper into her music and you'll unearth surprising quirks and dark twists. The Brighton native has been compared to Laura Marling and Lucy Rose, but her sound plunders the same spectral well as Jesca Hoop. Hackman's debut mini-album uses minimal instrumentation – a delicately plucked guitar, the glistening plume of harp strings, the faintest clatter and clank of percussion – to generate the same murky atmosphere as Hoop on songs such as Mountain Spines and You Come Down. Elsewhere she layers her hummed voice to create a pure harmonic chorus on Retina Television and Plans. Some tracks may initially seem a little twee, but as the title suggests, these promising songs leave an uncommon tang in their wake.
Marikahackman. com
Download: Bath Is Black, Retina Television