SnowW.Wwhite’s ‘Wonderland’ is a lacquered gem, an incarnadine work of art faceted with military epaulets and insignia without bloodied marshes festooned with torn bodies and cracked shell casings, rather it is the prolific marches of idealism and honour before the bleaching of war that this one woman act evinces. The music’s mystique is in its blend of martial and nursery-melody that is not without its languourous trailings despite the seeming dichotomy of silvered melody and relentless percussive march. Martial pop or martial ambient music has secreted itself a genre by sheer volume of acts these last few decades, with the refinement calling more and more to war and in particular the influence of the Great Wars, and it is always with some trepidation that one broaches one’s ears to yet another act, however, ‘Wonderland’ is a freshet of crisp symphony, peculiar to be true, but thankfully not lo-fi.

Certain darkness does encroach the shadows of the pristine instrumentation – the drums step with precise meter, anything but livid despite their continuous, if varied, encores – but rarely curdle unholy phantasmagorias or scenes of battle, providing entrancing anthems as if performed in military bandstyle gregariously. Whilst hailing from Germany, Snowwy, residing in England does allow a certain blend of culture with traditional folk enmeshed with almost Scottish tattoo. All the elements are ingenuously synthesised but the after-care of mastering has lifted simple instrumentation from the bounds of a pre-programmed rhythm (not that such could be attained by a push of one mere button).

This odd concoction of saliently noble rhythm and – for the most part – uplifting or introspective melodism adapts to the martial decor of European acts from a divergent perspective than commonly found and exhibits a wistfulness of war without the deformation of humankind across foreign lands.