Pumarosa - The Witch

The Guardian 60

(Fiction)

London five-piece Pumarosa don’t sound like much else that’s around, sporting a flamboyant tendency to space-rocking, electronically garnished epics. They build with skill, too, on the grungey Honey and the rolling Lions’ Den, the slow-burning title track and the pulsing, hedonistic, brass-flourished Priestess, which recalls Foals at their most fluid and funky. Slighter songs such as the Britpoppy My Gruesome Loving Friend or the trip-hoppy Barefoot aren’t as arresting, and the new-agey lyrics coupled with Isabel Munoz-Newsome’s impassioned, highly mannered vocals can grate. But overall, producer Dan Carey smooths their varied styles into a surprisingly magnetic debut.