Single Review: Moscow – Queen Of Sin EP

Elizaveta Tursunova struck out on her own from her native Russia at the age of sixteen taking in Cambridge, London, Paris and New York before settling in Los Angeles, where she has seemed to find her spiritual home, with it’s hedonistic history that is steeped in rock ‘n roll folklore. Now recording under the nom de guerre of Moscow she has released her debut EP, Queen Of Sin, that comes across as a modern slice of alt rock that seems to embrace the past of Los Angeles, whilst simultaneously bringing her own worldview into the mix.

Queen Of Sin kicks straight in with the title track that embraces alt rock, but with a more melodic quality to the vocals than I’ve been used to hearing, although it must be said that Moscow can also unleash a hellbound scream when required. The distorted fuzzed out lead guitar dominates the tracks along with the powerhouse drums and soaring vocals, Nowhere To Hide and Black Widow continue in the driving hard hitting vein of the title track before Watch Me Burn brings the tempo down, after all you can’t really have an alt rock EP without an anthemic slow burner, and finally Heartbeat brings us to a pummelling finale.

The result is a debut EP that, along with the likes of Mohawk Radio and Freeze The Atlantic, is bringing something fresh to what was becoming an increasingly stagnant alt rock scene. Queen Of Sin embraces the hedonistic accessibility of the rock scene in it’s eighties prime and the harder distorted edge of alt rock to produce an EP that has the sound of a singer in the early stages of her ascendancy. The Queen Of Sin could be a prophetic title for this EP as on the basis of this impressive debut I have the feeling we’ll be hearing a lot more from Moscow.

You can order the Queen Of Sin EP via iTunes here