Edinburgh’s emerging trip-hop duo PELOWSKA don’t ease the listener in gently on their debut EP ‘END / START‘ — they plunge them straight into the deep water. Drawing on the shadowy atmospherics of Massive Attack and the emotional grit of Portishead, the duo craft a four-track project that feels both intimate and immense, a storm system of retro-synths, pulsing bass, and raw confession.
Vocalist and producer Aneshka Pelowska is the EP’s gravitational centre. Her voice moves between wounded clarity and incantation, tracing the contours of a personal collapse that left her homeless and consumed by PTSD and depression. What could easily have been an insular document instead becomes something expansive; she sings not just to recount trauma but to transmute it. Across the EP, nature appears as both metaphor and force – oceans surging, fires burning, earth cracking – guiding the emotional shifts from dissolution to reconstruction.
Musically, the duo lean into a palette that feels deliberately unvarnished. Synths hum with analogue warmth, beats creep rather than explode, and Dave Tynan’s bass and guitar lines sit low and sinewy, grounding the more spectral moments. It’s trip-hop pushed through a contemporary lens: darker, rougher around the edges, but pulsing with purpose.
What makes ‘END / START‘ compelling is its refusal to glorify suffering while still acknowledging its transformative power. Pelowska’s lyrics connect directly with listeners who recognise the messy, nonlinear path of healing. There is no polished redemption arc here; instead, the record thrives on human complexity, on the uneasy but energising tension between vulnerability and resilience.
The duo’s backstory adds its own texture. Both admired one another’s work from afar before a freak accident – a glass of wine and a ruined laptop – sparked their collaboration. As a Polish immigrant and one of the 3.5% of women producers working in today’s industry, Pelowska’s presence alone feels quietly radical, and the music’s authenticity mirrors the conditions under which it was made: no scene connections, no shortcuts, just craft and conviction.
Despite a small catalogue, PELOWSKA have already caught the ears of BBC Introducing Scotland, The Scotsman, and Amazing Radio, and it’s easy to hear why. ‘END / START‘ is a debut that doesn’t try to be sleek or safe; instead, it’s alive with struggle, catharsis, and the electricity of self-redefinition. If this is the starting point, their next chapter promises to be even more formidable.