So into it:
RóisÃn Murphy - Sow Into You
Gorgeous, wonderful, but...
I have a really hard time explaining RóisÃn Murphy's vocal talents to other people without adding some special qualifiers like "weird" or "strange" - this is because her music is weird and strange. My fascination with this unusual character started with Moloko (RóisÃn and Mark Brydon) and their song "Fun For Me" on their album Do You Like My Tight Sweater? It has the most wonderful and weird and squiggly buzzsaw synth bass that runs through it, while RóisÃn is singing about a dream where she's "bigger than king kong" and about the bogeyman "going down on mister Spock" - yeah, weird. Anyway, Moloko had four albums, and now RóisÃn has gone and done one on her own, called Ruby Blue, which features the production talents of none other than Matthew Herbert, another singularly odd character.
Herbert, aka Matthew Herbert, aka Doctor Rocket, has been producing his own, very unique style of electronic music: he builds songs on samples of recordings he makes of, well, almost anything and everything. His album Bodily Functions is based entirely on sounds the human body makes. Around The House, considered by many to be a classic of minimal techno, is made of samples gathered, you guessed it, around the house. When there are vocals on his songs, he primarily uses Dani Sicilano, and Herbert has remixed a number of Moloko tracks, thus this collaboration makes a heap of sense.
So the music itself? Gorgeous and weird, clearly. Much of Herbert's work is in swing-time (is it called 3/4 or 6/8 time? look it up), as is a handful of this record. According to the info I have on the record, they developed the songs together, starting with RóisÃn working alone on a 4-track with ideas in her new London apartment (she's from Dublin Wexford, Ireland - thanks John for the correction), then RóisÃn and Herbert made the samples for the songs jointly, then Herbert arranged the brass... the result is some really quite beautiful music.
Ruby Blue came out last year in the UK, but didn't make its way here until now - well actually the record comes out on the 25th, but you can pre-order it from Amazon.com (or buy now from Boomkat if you're in the UK), and will be available at your favorite local indie retailers as well. ALSO, Herbert himself has a new album coming out in late May, so keep your ears peeled for that...
Have a good weekend!