RECORD REVIEW : GLASSER

Reviews

Tuesday, 09 November 2010 04:51

Glasser

Glasser - Ring

Glasser, LA native, Cameron Mesirow now based in NY, seems to have been destined to end up making music. Her father is one of those creepy 'Blue Men' who bang on pipes and plastic tubes and her mother was a member of the new-wave band Human Sexual Response who were around from the late 70s to the early 80s. Mesirow learnt guitar from her dad as a kid and then piano, and grew up with Joni Mitchell as one of her idols. Fast forward a few years and we find her with an EP, last year's Apply, and now her debut album Ring, which was released to critical acclaim.

Having an experimental edge from the beginning, Glasser was working in a run of the mill shoe-store when she discovered GarageBand and actually recorded the vocals to the track 'Apply' while at work there. The EP was tweaked and edited while she was crossing the Atlantic to visit her father in Berlin where he is based with the 'Blue Men' troupe, and was only originally released in the UK as 12" on the Young Turks label.

She came up with the name 'Glasser' from a dream, or more-so in her words, 'A midnight vision of a figure hanging over the water'. The title of her debut, Rings, was inspired by Homer (the author, not the Simpson) and his classic epic, 'Odyssey'. Its symmetrical narrative structure, not overtly concerned about a beginning, middle and end, but rather a story whereby you are free to enter at any point, enjoy the ride and get off where you came in. Or just keep going round and round for that matter. The tracks blend seamlessly at times and this whole mix, the complete sound as a creative entity, is quite a unique experience, despite the obvious comparisons to Bjork, Karen Oh and Fever Ray (Karin Deijer). These comparisons are lazy however. Mesirow has a voice that while is on the same level, is something quite different to these contemporaries. She brings into her sound many aspects, tropical pop, tribal percussion, electro, and orchestral flourishes including a great deal of woodwind, which all sit harmoniously beside her simple minimal melodies. Her vocals becoming the focus, giving power to each track. Producer Ariel Rechtshaid has upped the anti on the Apply EP, with the arrangements on Ring a tour de force at times.

The album starts with 'Apply', an updated version from her EP of the same name. It first came to many people's attention via a compilation offering from e-Music called Selected + Collected at the start of 2009. 'Apply' was one of the shining tracks, not bad considering the company it had, namely San Fran's Girls and Michigan's Salem, both going on to brighter things that year. Also not bad for a solo artist using GarageBand. 'Home', like many of the tracks showcases her ability for soaring, flexible vocals, as with 'Glad' which has a distinctive Asian influence, morphing into 'Plane Temp' without skipping a beat.'T' is a tribute to her best friend and fellow artist Tauba Auerbach, whose acrylic and glass on panel work 'Shatter III' can be seen on the CD cover for Ring. 'Tremel' sitting halfway through the tracklist has a driving percussive edge and is one of the more urgent sounding tracks here, complete with false ending about thirty seconds before 'Mirrorage'. "Can I trust in you, ..." she sings on this track layered down with too many levels amongst it to keep track of. Bells, accordions, brass, strings, xylophone, piano and of course multiple vocal layering keep you immersed in the moment and wondering what is going to happen on the next track.

Rings get more electro the further you venture into it, subtly, but the vocals are always the centrepiece. They are crystal clear and sharp as a knife. It must have been a real treat for producers Van Rivers and the 'Subliminal Kid' having the canvas to work with and add to. An artist always searching for new ideas and concepts, she had plans to build a 'bifurcated' pipe organ, with artist friend Auerbach. As she explains "it evolved from an idea of making something that'd be impossible to play without each other. The organ is gonna be split up into two keyboards- we'll have every other key - and I'll have the pumps for her side while she has the pumps for mine. We're calling the project Auerglass, and we're debuting it at her gallery".

Glasser has released a great deal of majestic work since her EP only two years ago, having moved from solo recordings with her laptop in a shoe store to producing a hypnotic, complex yet at times starkly simple LP that is a product of out times. It's compelling, worth many listens, and a fluid artwork in itself to be appreciated as a whole.

Dave Roberts, November 9, 2010

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