I rarely have time to look back in the rear view mirror whilst swerving recklessly through the music release avalanche, lest I get buried or miss something newer and shinier. It's a thoroughly modern disease, sadly widespread in the blogosphere as there is such first mover coverage SEO advantage in this sick age where clicks and likes are valued more than art.
Luckily I was given a nudge this week about a peyote pop gem from SiS that had somehow escaped me over the summer months, although in my defence it was released a month before the birth of my daughter and I was probably out shopping for baby clothes. Excuses aside let's start with this video, we're late to the party and we've got some catching up to do, and this video is worth about two joints and three tequila shots. You'll be on the table dancing with the others in no time.
If that doesn't whet your appetite then get your coat now and don't come back, Jenny Gillespie Mason's SiS project (and her excellent record label) deserves greater respect. Apparently her creative approach is to squirrel herself away in a darkened room frantically transposing her sensory deprived imagination and then, before medical attention is necessary, rushing, still blinking in the daylight to the local studio where a couple of trusted collaborators: electric guitarist Carly Bond (Meernaa) and keyboardist Rob Shelton (Meernaa, John Vanderslice) try and make sense of her fevered compositions, and with results like this I can only say that I wish more artists adopted this approach, rather than just borrowing their inspiration and staring at a screen for months overproducing and over compressing their ill gotten gains.
You've checked the perky, shiny joys of "Bow to Your Wilderness", but don't stop there, this is all killer with even the LP "filler" consisting of wayward jazz licked psychedelic meanderings that act as auditory appetisers for the insistent, off kilter pop grooves, pleasingly warped sentimental balladry, sun kissed lysergic instrumentals and lethargic dream house that propel Mason's good natured, daydreamy musings through the speakers. It's a charming, wonderfully quirky pop gem, get with the program.
Playlist Companion.
Find SiS and other alternative, lesser known pop purveyors in the suitably entitled Slow Pop Playlist.
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