[fingertipsmusic] This Week's Finds: April 27 (Jesca Hoop, Jonka, Lydia Loveless)

From: Jeremy Schlosberg <fingertipsmusic@xxxxxxxxx>
To: fingertipsmusic@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2012 13:52:53 -0400
*THIS WEEK'S FINDS <http://www.fingertipsmusic.com>*
*April 27*
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[image: Jesca 
Hoop]<http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/jescahoop.jpg>
 “BORN TO” – JESCA
HOOP<http://www.girlieaction.com/music/jesca_hoop/downloads/Born_To.mp3>

With all of the vexation I’ve been feeling these last couple of years
regarding Auto-Tune, I’ve forgotten something important: I’ve never had
anything against vocal distortion per se. There is absolutely nothing
wrong, to me, with the artful use of filters, effects, and so forth. Any
number of favored musicians and wonderful songs have employed such tools.
In its proper place, Auto-Tune may offer a new range of possibilities for
artful vocal distortion as well. (Hint: its over-use by and domination of
today’s top 40 does not qualify as “its proper place.”)

I’m not sure whether Jesca Hoop is here using Auto-Tune or some other
processing system (probably the latter; perhaps a vocoder), but the main
point to my ears is that you can hear, viscerally, the quality of her
singing voice (not to mention her songwriting voice), regardless of what
she’s doing to process the sound. And this blending of the natural and the
man-made appears to be part of the song’s purpose from the very start. The
opening riff—brisk and complex and almost thrilling—is played on acoustic
guitar and yet set in a hazily processed soundscape. Her voice arrives in a
similar brew, full of both spirit and artifice. The song’s dizzy momentum
is bewitching, and for all the electronic processing, its human core is
both obvious and dazzling. Contrast this to the cynical, sheep-like use of
Auto-Tune in the pop world, effecting little more than the addition of a
metallic/robotic edge to the vocal that will sound fad-like and pointless
once we emerge culturally from our trance-like attachment to it.

Hoop is an adventurous singer/songwriter who was born in Northern
California, grew up Mormon, lived as a homesteader in Western wilderness
areas, worked for five years as the nanny for Tom Waits and Kathleen
Brennan’s children (no, really), and picked up and moved to Manchester,
England in 2009 at the encouragement of Elbow’s Guy Garvey. “Born To” is a
song from her forthcoming album, *The House That Jack Built*, scheduled for
release in June on Bella Union <http://us.bellaunion.com/index.php?/site/>.
Hoop was previously featured here in 2007<http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/?p=201>
.



[image: Jonka] <http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/jonka.jpg>
 “EVERY OTHER DAY” –
JONKA<http://www.okasoftdesign.com/bsmith_promo/Jonka%20-%20Every%20Other%20Day.mp3>

A textbook exercise in how to construct a groove, “Every Other Day” burns
with the booty-shaking resolve of an old Hot Chocolate song, channeled
through the ’80s electro-pop style book, Erasure edition. Listen to how the
layers coalesce—first the basic beat, itself an alluring blend of
distant-seeming sounds; then the bass, all fat and old-school; then the
first foreground element, a slappy, tappy percussive sound playing a
jittery series of double-time flourishes. At this point, it’s cool but not
necessarily awesome. Awesome arrives with the next two elements: the
organ-y synthesizer (0:24) that skitters away seemingly between the beats;
and, the pièce de résistance, the high, swooping “oo-oos” (0:32) that
deliver the song’s first melody, wordless though it may be.

Beyond the sure groove, what sells “Every Other Day” is Jonka’s commitment
to vocal harmonies. Just as the twosome blend their names—Jon Neufeld and
Annika Kaye—to create the band’s name, so do they blend their voices in a
plush, ongoing layering of harmony not often heard in this musical setting.
From the opening lyric, the band mates (a married couple, you should know)
sing every word together, and are over-dubbed so that there are at least
two of each of them singing at all times. Neufeld’s soulful baritone takes
the lead but Kaye’s full-bodied backing vocals are just as important a part
of the song’s texture. The song’s melodies, meanwhile, percolate
relentlessly upward, giving the song an almost gospel-like sense of uplift.

Neufeld and Kaye live in Brooklyn. Neufeld grew up on Staten Island and
Kaye, born in Sweden, was raised in Manhattan. “Every Other Day” is the
first song available from the duo’s second album, *Pinks and Blues*, which
is arriving at some unspecified date in the reasonably near future.



[image: Lydia 
Loveless]<http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/loveless.jpg>
 “LEARN TO SAY NO” – LYDIA
LOVELESS<http://www.bloodshotrecords.com/resources/mp3_lydia_learn.mp3>

Just 21, Loveless sings from a deep reserve of heart, soul, and
older-than-her-years affliction. A cursory listen puts this one in the
alt-country-with-an-attitude box (not that there’s anything wrong with
that!), but closer inspection reveals a gratifying depth to both her singer
and songwriter sides.

To begin with there’s her voice, a potent combination of anger and sadness;
she navigates the pain-filled lyrics (“Why does it take so much out of
me/To be this weak?”) teetering between control and breakdown. You can hear
it in the tiniest moments, like the way she sings the word “I” in the
phrase “when I’m usually wrong” (0:21)—there’s a lot of emotion buried in
that condensed flutter that aches out and is quickly reeled back in. Or,
the way she chokes out the word “someday” at the beginning of the the
chorus the second time through (1:50). Reinforcing the impression that she
probably never sings the same word the same way twice is a song that offers
subtle changes throughout its development. We don’t hear the signature
guitar riff until 1:10, and when the verses return after the chorus, the
melody has been subtly changed, which you can hear most clearly at the
pause that appears at 1:27—a nice moment that has no equivalent point when
the verses were initially presented.

Loveless, raised in rural Ohio, has a complicated back story, but the
upshot is she has been playing professionally since she was 13 and quickly
fell into habits and behaviors not necessarily associated with the
middle-school-aged, to put it delicately. After being in the new-wavey band
Carson Drew with her sisters and her father, Loveless released her first
solo album in 2010. “Learn To Say No” is from album number two, *Indestructible
Machine*, which has been out on Bloodshot
Record<http://www.bloodshotrecords.com/>s
since September. The song has been floating around the internet since at
least December but it just came to my attention last week, thanks to
Largehearted
Boy <http://blog.largeheartedboy.com/>. MP3 via Bloodshot Records, and
there’s one more free and legal MP3 from the album available via the record
company <http://www.bloodshotrecords.com/album/indestructible-machine>.
Note that the label also sells a beverage cooler/holder that says “DRINK
MORE. LOVE LESS,” which has a certain pugnacious charm about it.



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[fingertipsmusic] This Week's Finds: April 27 (Jesca Hoop, Jonka, Lydia Loveless)

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