Marianne Nowottny was
a teen-sensation, causing a stir with her 1999 debut album, ‘Afraid
Of Me’. Not an album chock full of sugar-laced powder-pop
songs as a casual observer might have wrongly thought, it instead
was a unique release, shunning pop trends for avant-garde arrangements
and dark twisting vocals. After several releases which have established
her name in leftfield-pop circles, her latest album, the curiously
titled ‘What Is She Doing?’ has been released courtesy
of Abaton Book Company. The thing is that I didn’t know
any of this before receiving this album and when I saw the digipak
I was slightly perplexed. The cover looks like a cross between
Wendy Carlos’s ‘Secrets of Synthesis’ and an
early nineties Disney-pop release. Furthermore, the track names
are extremely pop-centric and they are all 2-5 minutes long which
typically means that the amount of experimentation and melodic-exploration
are limited. For a professional music reviewer none of this really
matters as it’s the music that does the talking and I for
one was pleasantly surprised.
With ‘What Is She
Doing?’ Nowottny set out to construct a homemade R&B
/pop CD however this shouldn’t be taken literally as she,
along with co-instrumentalist, Mark Dagley, have used these genre’s
as a stepping stone to an altogether more delicate and surreal
soundscape. Tracks like ‘What Would I Do’, ‘Cherry
Blossoms’, ‘Never Been In Love Before’ and ‘Big
Idea’ are pure and unadulterated dreamy-folktronica which
utilise a successful formula of ghostly textures, intricately
arranged electronic/instrumental blips and subtle, smokey and
layered vocals, all rooted within a leftfield-pop core. The most
emotive track to utilise this aforementioned style is ‘Stars
Fell On Alabama’ which is one of the standout pieces. Featuring
submerged vocals which drift emotively across a warmly produced
and vividly pulsating electronic soundscape, the track seeps deep
within your cerebral and (along with the others mentioned above)
can be roughly compared to the output of shoe-gazer space electronica
cult-acts such as Amp, Labradford and Bowery Electric.
It is on ‘Burnin’
Up For You Baby’ where Nowottny really shuns any pop-based
influences and indulges in a dark, blues influenced slice of off-kilter
jazzcore with crashing symbols, wailing sax and unstable electronic
textures. The track progresses (refreshingly) in a haphazard manner
and features Nowottny’s most frail and twisting vocals.
The off-kilter sounds and unique vocal delivery continues forth
into ‘Keep Our Love Alive’, with its tense soundscape
of oscillating dub-laced electroid motifs and laid-bare vocals,
underpinned by deep reverberating sub-bass swirls. The sonic landscape
undergoes a major diversion with ‘Mr So & So’
which is a dirty and raw electro soundscape populated by mutated
electronic bleeps, skeletal melodies, old-skool beats and higher
tempo, almost rap-like vocals. Although it does bounce eccentrically
with a certain charm, it does feel rather out-of-place on the
album, but that’s experimentation for you! Before the crystalised-pop
lullaby of the final track, ‘Where You Are’, listeners
are treated to the warped melodica of ‘I Don’t Wanna
Fight’ which features a disorientating juxtaposition of
beat and melody thanks to plenty of tempo-variation. Complimenting
this are Nowottny’s ghostly vocals which are made even more
haunting thanks to unique layering techniques.
Much has been made of Nowottny’s vocal talents but this
album is not really an arena for showcasing unique and avant-garde
throat work. Apart from being cleverly layered, Nowottny’s
vocals are dark, sultry and noir-ish, and are fully suited to
the musical landscape, but just don’t be expecting the haunted,
hypnotic vocals carved by the likes of Christina Carter, Beth
Gibbons, Islaja or Jeanne Lee. Overall, the album has a warm,
playful and sparkling aesthetic, the kind of which has been captured
so expertly by numerous Scandinavian artists, but this is fused
with a cabaret-esque charm and a myriad of other genres which
appear as micro-motifs. Ultimately, ‘What Is She Doing?’
is an unadulterated slice of pop-experimentation with a warm and
hazy, yet dark and quirky quality which is stuffed full of variety.
(RM)
For
fans of: Dreamy Folktronica, Avant-Pop, Leftfield Lullabies
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