(02 February 2006) To say that Hannah Fury's latest EP Subterfuge is a dark, dreamy and epically romantic masterpiece would be a huge understatement. Her remarkabley pure and exquisite voice has a range that can oscillate between a tremorous vapor to the depths of a deep well of Arthurian emotion that sends velveteen daggers to the heart. Listening to this next episode from Hannah's journey into the shadowlands of love feels like a door has opened to another realm, a phantasmagorical dreamscape where every loop is an occurance.

Hannah's virtuoso piano style is so hauntingly beautiful and rivoting. She is a masterful pianist who played each keyboard track in real-time. There was no looping of her piano performance on this EP. The combination of all these elements piano/voice and production make Fury an enigma.

Her melodies evoke tragic, gothic, landscapes drenched in kaleidospcope sounds. Layered in moments of sadness, longing, regret and release like walking through the "House of Mirrors" and seeing everything shattered in a million pieces all at once only to emerge back into the whole again, as she whispers one small kiss in your ear. While each track bares it's own distinctive aspect, like her previous work each song is part of one theatrical journey, a larger narrative of desire and mystery that bears telling.

Fury's mixing of this album illustrates that she is an alchemist, with a unique vision all her own.The dense production washes over you but you cannot resist the sensation to drown in the sonic prisms, echoes and wails. There are layers upon layers of dreamy elements. Like the quote offered in the CD's artwork of Subterfuge, "And then came the moment when the swarm of bees drowned"-from Wim Wenders film Wings of Desire-(a personal favorite film). It's like each layer swarms around you and draws you into its deep currents.

There are six little masterworks on this EP; absolute essentials are "My Next Victim" and "Girls that Glitter Love the Dark." Both wrench the listener into abject heart seizures of longing and rememberence. "A Latch to Open" evokes that feeling of escape and slipping away, breaking free of a dream that you can never seem to wake from. The first track "You Showed Me" (written by Gene Clark and Roger McGuinn of the Byrds and Turtles hit from 1969) is created as a music box hymn. "Je T'aime" is absolutely beautiful and "Carnival Justice" is a ravenous tone saga of jilted love. With the typically extraodinary imagery of her lyrics like "My heart is like the Moulin Rouge/All lit up in subterfuge."

The bonus "Carnival Justice (The Gloves are Off) Part 2" DVD is a treat. Directed by Chris Ohlson It features Scott Radke's marionettes-- he Queen of Hearts and Anathema Rose. They co-star with Fury and create an atmosphere of desire and retrobution. Evocative and haunting it is a wonderful accompaniment to the EP.

Hannah Fury should be lauded as a contemporary siren of the dreamy. A charismatic, bewitching enchantress of the romantic gothic wave genre. And although surely she will draw time and again comparisons to Tori Amos and Kate Bush, rest comfortably in knowing that she has the command of her art in such a masterful way that it would be unfair not to recognize that she is quite an inimitable genius set apart from these other women of this genre.

The entire mystique of her label Mellowtraumatic is evidence of her originality. From the incorporation of Scott Radke's incredible emotionally dimensional marionettes, to the profoundly delightful mythos of her alter-egos, her artistic-design and her storytelling, her music creates a dreamworl. She has seduced us into anxiously awaiting the full length CD. Listeners will surely continue to experience the saga that is the passions of Hannah Fury!--Jo Gabriel and The Little Egg Guy in Madison, Wisconsin