Perfume of the Soul

Few figures bounced through the UK DIY underground quite like Brenda Ray (aka Brenda Beachball, aka Polly Rithm). Like others of her generation, Ray was a post-punk still into the spiky un-slottability of punk and the spaciness of reggae, but who still loved a catchy tune, which comes through in her music. Unless you were in the UK during the era, it would have been nigh-on impossible to track her movements, from EPs to singles to cassette releases. So Emotional Rescue’s Perfume of the Soul is about as tactile as it gets for grasping Brenda Ray’s music, collecting a slew of unreleased tracks from 1989-1991. She shares the sensibilities of Trevor Horn, Grace Jones, and early St. Etienne, while also shaking free of easy categorization. There are elements of dub, homemade hip-hop, sampledelic pop, lo-fi house, and Balearic throughout, but it’s primarily the aural joy of Brenda Ray playing around that comes through loudest.