When the body starts screaming, Soft Violet harnesses the pain with beats and rhythms, bass, synth and vocals, to manifest a rejuvenated writhing musical being that thumps and bumps. Downtrodden, upbeat! Upbeat! Following multiple band projects, including the parallel powerhouse acts Spinnen and the ecstatic Turkish-Armenian-Friendship TAF, multi-instrumentalist Soft Violet, now releases her solo debut album: Sterner Stuff. And that it is: guttural with a pounding heart laid out on sexy stainless-steel surface, defiantly glinting. Playful experimentation reigns free, fusing drum-machine and analogue synths with bass and vocals, to create a hybrid glittering creature that shines sublime. Soft Violet has a special power to tap in, making clearly conscious decisions to break and irritate, strutting through techno beats, poetically proclaiming personal and political urgency with a confidence, sincerity and sense of humor echoing the likes of Zheani and Sneaks or (thrillingly also) the 1990s heroes Cibo Matto. Soft Violet urges the listener to unite, to love and be loved and find ways, through music, of transforming pain into something joyous and uplifting, porous and free, as well as incessantly danceable. Soft Violet dares to go places that others do not, tapping into an honesty that others shy away from, welcoming everyone in to come play. Soft Violet is a fighter rising in solidarity. The beginning of the matriarchy is already in full effect.