Available on: Souterrian Transmissions download

Zola Jesus’s ‘Night’ seems to represent the blackest, heaviest time of night; the sort of night with no stars; the type of night where it feels like the sun will never rise. Its heavy, oppressive layers of sound wrap you in a claustrophobic cloak of sound as dark as the singer’s clothes (if her press shots are anything to go by, anyway).

‘Night’ sounds like it was recorded in the sort of woods that children fear they’ll get lost in, complete with creaking and ghostly animal howls, but it’s Jesus’s vocals that really maintain the otherworldy qualities of this single. A classically trained philosophy student from Wisconsin, Zola Jesus – real name Nika Rosa Danilova – lets her opera experience come into its own on this track, howls and echoed moans calling out for something long lost.

The opening track from the Stridulum EP, ‘Night’ marks a step away from the lo-fi leaning sound of past Zola Jesus album The Spoils – gone are those static guitar lines and dusty drums. ‘Night’ is definitely no lullaby, but after a couple of listens you find yourself craving its almost metallic, solitary sound to recreate the loneliness of the type of night it depicts so well.

Josie McLean