By It’s our Bandcamp Picks of the Week, featuring SACRED PAWS jangly indie rock showcase JUMP INTO LIFE and Marie Davidson’s engrossing electronic extravaganza CITY OF CLOWNS!
Sacred Paws – JUMP INTO LIFE
Genre: Indie Pop
Favorite Tracks: “Another Day,” “Save Something”
Of the mid-2000s’ various musical-cultural trends, I enjoyed the overly sensitive indie pop of Mystery Jets, The Wombats, and a couple dozen or so other UK acts. (I also enjoyed OG Four Lokos, so taste is clearly relative.) While only some of those bands are still, um, getting their lover boy on, there’s a new entrant in this proud tradition: Sacred Paws. Yes, the duo of singer-guitarist Ray Aggs and drummer-vocalist Eilidh Rodgers have made among the finest LPs of this “genre” with the 11-track JUMP INTO LIFE. How is that possible, you ask with maximum befuddlement? Well, my eager lil’ beaver, the answer’s three-fold.
For one, their Scottish “origin” fosters an almost physical sense of space between Sacred Paws and their “predecessors”—the jangly, kinetic force of “Save Something” puts them closer to Belle and Sebastian. Meanwhile, the pair’s afrobeat bent colors the entire album; just one solid example, “Through The Dark” emphasizes a joy and litheness that’s familiar without being heavy-handed, lending a grander depth and robustness to “standard” indie pop. Finally, their being/presenting femme means, as you may have guessed, greater emotional intellect to our UK lads. In an album all about failed love and rebuilding oneself, lines like “I’ll draw a line / In the sand between your heart and mine / Don’t hold my hand” contains heaps of self-awareness, maturity, and brutal honesty (while also being hella catchy.)
Still, Sacred Paws aren’t interested in running too far from this approach/sound (even, as I suspect, they’re not actively doing anything beyond following their own hearts/muse). “Another Day” may have 1) banjo and 2) more sincerity and depth, but that romanticism would’ve been huge in London circa 2009. The title track is similar enough—the horns cut through vividly for a song about leaping from heartache to the shiny promise of an abstract tomorrow. “Winter” may not have the wordplay of Wombats/Mystery Jets, but there’s a level of intellectualization here that expertly counters the sheer emotionality. Even a simple groove/refrain in “Ask Myself” hums with nostalgia (for old loves and old fave records, perhaps?).
I absolutely welcome the notion that my comparison is half-cocked and/or indicative of my own desperate yearning for long-gone glory years. I’d nonetheless argue that if time is a flat circle, and all trends can become new again, that Sacred Paws have tapped into something that’s now a part of this shared musical DNA. Cheesy and indulgent as this “genre” may be, its inherent emotionality is clearly universal, and there’s an honesty and power to be explored in its “re-emergence.” Sacred Paws, at least, feel decidedly novel and powerful in their uber poppy exploration of love lost and a new life in the balance. They lean into the singular tones and concepts that lend real value and solace. They inject their own lives and power into these warm structures, ultimately succeeding by being real and charming as all get out. Contextualize this indie pop gem however you choose, but you might just be too busy falling in love all over again. Listen to it now over on Bandcamp. [Chris Coplan]
Marie Davidson – CITY OF CLOWNS
Genre: Electroclash, EBM, Industrial Techno
Favorite Tracks: “Demolition,” “Y.A.A.M.” “Unknowing”
Marie Davidson’s music thrives through conflict. 2018’s excellent WORKING CLASS WOMAN traversed incisive critiques of dancefloor culture that, while often humorous, also felt deeply disquieting. This time, she trades the minimal synth soundscapes of her past work for bold industrial beats and towering synth leads. Where most of her past music was sometimes eerie and frightening, CITY OF CLOWNS feels outright dangerous.
It opens with “Validations Weight”, a cinematic dirge that wields synth strings, delayed vocals and arpeggios into something nearly suffocating. It immediately sets the tone for the entire album: Marie’s spoken word, a modified excerpt of Shoshana Zuboff’s 2018 book “The Age of Surveillance Capitalism” puts forth how our data and identity become raw materials for companies to build tools that can tune, herd and condition our behavior in whatever ways they deem necessary. Human conduct is messy and volatile, but for businesses to succeed, their machines demand certainty. This reality, dark as it is, could naturally be written about in the most dystopic, apocalyptic terms. CITY OF CLOWNS acknowledges its weight, but Marie’s genius as a songwriter resides in how she balances wry humor and a sense of utter distress. Standout track “Demolition” melds a classic New Beat bassline with yelps and guffaws that fill the pockets in the production. Marie takes on the role of an algorithm, intoning “Last night’s pleasures / You pay off with your soul / All roads lead to hell / All ways lead to me / Ask me anything / I’ve got everything you need.” It’s imposing and intrusive, but it’s also an irresistible groove. On the other side of the spectrum, there’s “Push Me Fuckhead”, which is delightfully irreverent and holds plenty of Marie’s signature non-sequiturs. The invasiveness and absurdity of data recollection has never been as succinctly expressed as she did on the lines “Who are you? / What’s your type? / Are you on the spectrum? / Take a deep brеath / We have a template.”
The production, helmed by Pierre Guerineau and Soulwax, ensures there’s a distinct sense of unease and tension throughout the album. Stark drum machines and dense saw-waves color most of the tracks here, mechanical and precise. The most exhilarating moments on the album bring light into these dark passages, like sparks coming out of machinery. Lead single “Y.A.A.M.” is pure catharsis, an elastic bassline gliding across skittering claps and light cymbals as Marie calls upon the “Entrepreneurs and producers and freelancers to managers / The whole wide world of bravados, upset liars and insiders” to, well, get their asses on the floor. Are these the clowns she mentions in the title? CITY OF CLOWNS is confrontational, dense and aggressive. It’s also hilarious and thrilling, in a way not much dance music is. It feels like a threat delivered with a laugh and a glint in the eye. You can check it over on Bandcamp! [Jay Bracho]
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