Violet Cries is the haunting, powerful debut from Brighton, England's ESBEN AND THE WITCH, playing an assortment of guitars, effects, keyboards and a single monumental tom-tom. Esben paint a thick palette of sound, with echoes of late Scott Walker and Nick Cave in the instrumentation, Flowers of Romance-era PiL and Gang Gang Dance in its tribal excursions, and female vocalists from Lisa Gerrard to PJ Harvey in Davies's powerful tremelo voice.