Knife Girl steps forwards with danceable yet experimental Uniform

Painted as a light picture with pools of darkness, with multiple musicians collaborating on the album, this allows a concoction of styles and ideas to seep in. The popping bass delivery and frenetic guitar work of “Will This Catch the Algorithm” allows Knife Girl – aka Lili Aslo – to have an opposing side to her indie, bright guitar flurries.

Uniform ripples in the same sonic underground as indie rock, with funk, pop, soul and electronic elements. Aslo visits all these touchstones in a mix of danceable yet sometimes absurd experimentation. Playing with quietude, “please don’t give up on me” delicately wanders in, similarly, a close, intimate vocal delivery on “Stop Time” reigns supreme, before being thrown out during the rattle of “Brain Dead (Just Do It)”. There’s a real sense of play on Uniform that is gratifying, from the atmospheric textures to the punky, gritty vocals of “Algorithm”.

Knife Girl often clings to feelings of positivity, particularly with lead single “Good Times are Coming”. Despite difficulties concerning depression and feeling powerless to change, the track feels like a worship with its use of high-energy instrumentation and vocal delivery. “Ready for Love” reflects a requirement for love instead of a longing, its soft piano translating into a full-blown number featuring guitar, soulful drums and piano which demonstrate different stages. There’s also an amount of humour which sticks its head out of the clouds now and again, the type that is self-deprecating, sometimes considered dark; “I could get hit by a truck and it wouldn’t faze me, but you looking in my direction could instantly kill me” the first line of “Ready for Love” reads.

In the early stage of her career, Aslo uploaded her own snippets of indie pop to Soundcloud, and now she lands on her feet with a release less cohesive than the expected debut but – more significant than anything else – it is one that holds freedom at its heart.