Feeding People - Island Universe
Label.........................: Innovative Leisure
Genre.........................: Indie
StoreDate.....................: Feb-05-2013
Source........................: CDDA
Grabber.......................: Exact Audio Copy (Secure Mode)
Encoding Scheme...............: Lame 3.98.4 V0 VBR Joint-Stereo
Size..........................: 69.02 MB
Total Playing Time............: 40:09
Release Notes:
Jessie Jones' voice is even more compelling than her backstory.
According to legend, the 20-year-old founder and frontwoman for Orange
County upstarts Feeding People grew up a devout, superchurch-attending
evangelical Christian who, upon discovering the Beatles as a teen,
embraced a new religion entirely. ("I started to explore my
interpretation of the world," she told OC Weekly last fall, "and it was
through music that I found a way to connect.") And while said
exploration took her on a ride through her home county's rich
countercultural history, the psychedelic hybrid she's assembled here
packs a much heftier wallop, thanks mostly to her remarkable, Karen
O-caliber howl.
That's what sets Feeding People and Island Universe, their sophomore
full-length, apart from the crowd. Until recently, they'd been aligned
with Fullerton, California-based Burger Records, a vinyl and cassette
(and soon to be digital) outpost that, in addition to pressing FP's 2011
debut LP, has served as a vital part of the American garage-rock
community by offering releases from wide-ranging, guitar-wielding,
hook-friendly maniacs like Harlem, Black Lips, Nobunny, King Tuff, Ty
Segall and, last but not least, the Tough Shits. But Jones and Co. have
taken up with yet more interesting company as of late, hunkering down in
the studio with producers Hanni El Khatib and Jonny Bell (also of Long
Beach psych crew Crystal Stilts), and even accepting an invitation to
perform at Los Angeles' much-ballyhooed, weekly experimental hip-hop and
electronic-music party, Low End Theory. Thom Yorke joined them onstage.
There are no prominent electronics on Island Universe, but it's a
relatively ambitious, often distortion-less statement that feels more
spacious than the band's (former) basement-rock peers. Jones' vocals are
simply too powerful to be obscured by any fuzz; what you get instead is
a gripping amalgamation of Devendra Banhart-informed folk (see the saucy
title track), Flaming Lips-style screwball alt-pop ("Insane," "Closer"),
noise-laden psych freakouts ("Inside Voices," "Uranium Sea"), and
thunderous, old-fashioned displays of rock'n'roll brawn like "Big
Mother" or "Red Queen."
While there's an astonishing amount of variety throughout, no weak link
can be found, nor any evidence of faulty sequencing. Jones' gilded
vocals glue everything together beautifully, whether she's softly cooing
or unleashing the acrobatics that make highlight "Other Side" so potent:
"When you come up, there's no coming down / High as above, low as the
ground / I've got friends on the other side / The devil is waiting to go
for a ride." Right on, right on.
--Spin 7/10
Tracklisting
01. Silent Violent 4:07
02. Other Side 2:15
03. Island Universe 3:24
04. Big Mother 1:34
05. Uranium Sea 3:28
06. Insane 3:00
07. The Cat Song (Secrets Of Luna) 3:44
08. Inside Voices 4:20
09. Desert Song 2:27
10. Red Queen 4:03
11. Each His Own 4:19
12. Closer 3:28
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