'Scarlet Girl EP' by Elena Dana - A review

Elena Dana, born and raised in the Ukraine but now as firm a pillar of the UK acoustic scene as anyone noteworthy, blends traditional Russian folk music with the stylised, New York 'Anti-Folk' movement of recent years.

Her four-track EP Scarlet Girl is, despite its brief runtime, an expertly compiled spectrum of her talents, influences and styles.  While these songs really demand to be heard live (Dana's stage presence is impeccable and her mix of originals and haunting, Russian ballads is always an atmospheric and special experience to behold), this offering does plenty of justice to them.

Aesthetically, title track Scarlet Girl is the EP's biggest triumph, and is also the most indicative of Dana's Russian influences; the inclusion of a number of percussion instruments and background vocals compliment the brooding, gypsy-folk guitar playing and lend something of a singalong quality to the beautifully simplistic lyrics.  Dana's ability to create a memorable, infectious chorus without words is on full display here.

Parallel Lives is whimsical, romantic and bouncy.  With lyrical content aping a stream of consciousness - the protagonist internally wonders how things would have been with a would-be romantic partner had she acted sooner upon their paths crossing - the piece begins as a lingering, heartfelt love song but soon detours into one of Dana's trademark toe-tapping, alt-pop verses.  She takes the reins of her Anti-Folk roots and runs them effortlessly into her unique Eastern style, creating something extremely memorable before blindsiding the listener with a moving, powerfully-delivered chorus.

The sunny, spritely It's Not About the Bike has echoes of Regina Spektor; Elena Dana paints the scenario described, singing 'Brum Brum Brum' amidst fond recollections of early childhood and learning to ride a bicycle for the first time.  The fresh, summery inflection to the song would raise a smile through any mood and it provides the heights of this EP's amicability.

However, it is My Life With You that is the runaway highlight of Scarlet Girl.  A bittersweet, melancholy and haunting celebration of life, dreams and beloved pets, My Life With You is Elena Dana's Magnum Opus.  The emotionally-charged lyrics are moving beyond compare, the persistent minor key of the guitar work is soul-penetrating and the whole product is beautifully iced by the EP's reverberated production values - more of a triumph here than on any other track.  The song really has to be heard to be believed.

Scarlet Girl is warm, likeable and devoid of pessimism even in its most melancholy moments.  It is a postcard to love, life and fond memories that is surpassed only by the incredible live performances of its scribe.

Elena Dana performs regularly in and around London.

Scarlet Girl and other works can be heard on her SoundCloud page.

Oh, Vienna! Synopsis.

A brief description of some of the stories from my new collection.

OH, VIENNA
Concerning the travels through Europe undertaken by Jet Tea and Hayden, heavily focusing on the visit to Vienna referenced at the end of The Life and Loves of Jet Tea.  It's more drunken idiocy, and more focused on Hayden than Jet Tea.  Maurice's absence is explained.  I hadn't planned on returning to these characters so soon, but I liked the idea of writing a prequel and the story also fits one of the collection's main themes which is escapism.

SIGNS
A short story to the nth degree, this is somewhere between a poem and a fable, commenting on our obsession with obeying signs and detailing why it's not really beneficial to do so without question.  It takes place within the timeframe of Jet Tea and concerns the man and his son who are referenced as having been tragically killed, again in the last chapter (it seems the last chapter of my debut novel is an unintentional advert for this collection).

THE NICE MAN
The first short story I ever wrote, written for an independent zine that never happened.  This picks up shortly after the events of Jet Tea and explains where Niall disappeared to.  He's taken leave from London for a while to cope with guilt and is staying in Yorkshire with his dog. While on a stroll to see the farmhouse that inspired Wuthering Heights, he meets a man who claims to be a thousand years old and responsible for all of the world's evil.  But he's really quite a nice man.

THE EXPLODING OF JEREMY AND JESSICA
A further instance of the magic in Jet Tea's world.  Jessica, who you'll remember as the vegan that insults Jet Tea, broken up with her boyfriend craig and has exploded.  Jeremy, who is into Jessica, has also exploded.  This is a love story about what happens when two people explode.

FOR GILLIAN, IN LA ROCHELLE
This is my attempt at honouring some of the people who didn't turn up in Jet Tea, and is pretty much a tragic love story, with some drunken Maurice thrown in for good measure.

MY HOLIDAY IN DEPRAVITY
Almost an essay as opposed to a story.  I wanted to articulate in prose how I felt last summer, spending all my money on getting drunk, staying up, not sleeping, fearing for my health, losing touch with society, dreams about dying and drunken fights with wankers.

COPPERVID DAFIELD
My abridged autobiography, with a temporal variation.

WHAT'S ON YOUR MIND?
An epic tragedy told through the medium of facebook.

REMEMBRANCE
A morality tale; and something of a parable.  Albert wants to be remembered beyond his eventual death, and is having trouble finding a means of doing so.  He is violent, short-tempered and has none of the talent usually affiliated with cultural immortality.  However, an idea springs to mind when he passes a war memorial, listing the honoured dead.

FROM NIGHTMARES
I am not at liberty to discuss the contents of this section.  The demons will trap me and torture me if I do.

OH, VIENNA! is available now.

This means SOMETHING to me

Despite my first book having taken me close to four years to complete, my second appears to have only taken me four months.

Well, not exactly.

Oh, Vienna! is my anthology of short stories; it is everything I've written that I feel is worthy of print.  Some of the stories predate The Life and Loves of Jet Tea, many were written during the year in which I considered the novel on hold, and two or three have been written since.  I can confirm that Jet Tea, Maurice and Hayden will return, albeit not necessarily in the same country. 

As a point of interest to anyone who would like to purchase it, I should make it clear that the vast majority of the stories contained have previously been published on this very blog.  So if you are a regular reader you'll have already read about 70% of Oh, Vienna! and I wouldn't want to mislead you into paying money for something that you've already read.  The book is primarily for me; I've always loved the idea of having a collection of short stories to my name and this is simply that wish fulfillment.  It's cheaper than Jet Tea so it won't set you back and, in what you may consider to be a rather fiendish move, there are three or four stories included that you won't find anywhere else (including the titular).  However, I do consider them to be very, very good.  Most of them are nearly half a decade old and I've been casually polishing them for almost that long, so I'm confident that they deserve to be made available in print.

Last point; these stories are from the furthest corners of my imagination.  Arrogant twenty-somethings getting drunk and being idiots is only the beginning.  Expect shape-changing wolves, exploding lovers, demonic pigeons vanquished by the power of nightmares, human roadkill, a 10,000 year old saint and the REAL death of Sherlock Holmes.  This volume is a snapshot of a mind wherein the boundaries of rationality and reality are rapidly eroding.  It may be the last coherent, conventional thing I write because my perception of the world around me is becoming less and less in tune with what is deemed commonplace every day.  What makes me most proud of Oh, Vienna! is that, one day, whatever state my imagination may be in then, I'll be able to look back at this as a time capsule containing the person I was back then.  Where Jet Tea is a love letter to my wayward, formative years; a tribute to a part of my life I'll never live again, Oh, Vienna! is just as special to me in that it perfectly conveys my mind as it is right now.

And I even drew the cover image.

Oh, Vienna! will be available to buy from Amazon in the next few days.

Where Did All The Money Go? - A review.

Paul Schiernecker's Where Did All The Money Go? is a collection of short stories, but like the best short story collections there is a strong link that binds them all and on completion reads like a good novel.  It is a brash, comical account of student life above and beyond the likes of The Inbetweeners and Fresh Meat that omits no staples of formative years, be they first-time substance abuse, trips to Amsterdam or really gelling with a new friend for the first time.  It is also expertly bookended by the modern day, getting across that feeling of growing up and simultaneously heightening the nostalgic value.

Schiernecker's triumph is that he pulls no punches and is completely candid in his loosely biographical recollections of university days; an early bedroom mishap will make you squirm, but is all the more hilarious and endearing for it.  His redundantly-pseudonymed central characters are, despite their social misfires and misadventures, consistently likeable and the supporting players are no less impressive (the aptly named Madcat deserves a novel of his own).

Stories range from the outright hilarious (Madcat on the Prowl) to the genuinely sinister (The Curse of Iggy Sutcliffe) but the high quality never varies or wanes.  The author's ability to round off a seemingly mundane and familiar scenario with a laugh out loud punchline is impressive to the last page, and whether or not your college years were as eventful as Schiernecker's, by the end you'll have convinced yourself that they were.  The highly detailed, considerate first person narration will make you feel as though you were there.

Where Did All The Money Go is a coming of age tale that stands alongside the best of the genre and deserves to find bible status among the student population.  It is an honest, hilarious and expertly crafted piece of nostalgia, wherein absolutely nothing is left out (except for the plot twist to Lucky Number Slevin).

Where Did All The Money Go is available now on Amazon and Amazon Kindle.