Another single came my way from father/daughter Records, home of that great Family Trees single, this one from a practically local artist Tooth Ache out of Burlington, VT.
There's a fine line between The Cosmetics and someone like Zola Jesus, in core structure. It's more than just a lean towards minimal instrumentation and a recording aesthetic difference. The tone is decidedly more sinister. Maybe I'm just talking about what they consist of when you examine the pieces...mechanical rhythms, synth melodies. So essentially it's up to the delivery to separate it from something to hit the dance floor. If you even want to separate it. I have to a little to get away from that soulless dance music that gets pumped out of terrible clubs.
Alexandria Hall has a more understated, softer voice than Zola, but the underlying mood is the same for me. It's so ghostly, the vocals fade into pure melody on the A-Side "Skin". Once I found the lyric insert the song changed, the obscure hints at narrative, it could probably stand on it's own and the way she sets this on the mechanics of beats is unique. There's nothing happening in the instrumentation that would lead to this delivery. Sort of an angelic U.S. Girls in idiosyncratic melody, her voice can carry both of these tracks with even less than we're given.
Th B-Side, "Lazarus", is more of her otherworldly vocals over clicks and deep moog. It's somber and cold and the vocals show up like a sparrow in the post nuclear landscape. Just all of a sudden it makes sense, where have you been?
How this comes out of VT, I don't understand, but then maybe this is a case for the lessening gap between geographic musical styles. Or that talent doesn't pay attention to where it grew up.
Get this and Family Trees at Father/Daughter Records.
I want to hear what they release next.
How can this come from VT? I don't know, huh, maybe talented musical acts don't ONLY come from large cities! Holy crap what a thought!
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