New Music From Rose Dougal, Sauter & Millions
Rose Elinor Dougall
A New Illusion
(Vermilion)
British singer, songwriter and musician Rose Elinor Dougall got a burst of fame in the previous decade as a vocalist known as “Rosay” in the modernized girl-group throwback band The Pipettes, delivering polished pop escapism and unabashedly embracing tropes that were charmingly dated.
Wearing coordinated outfits with polka-dot patterns and synchronized movements, the group was self-aware about its cheesiness and ephemeral disposability, but in bubblegum pop, ironically, there can sometimes be an enduring joy when being honest about seeking pure pop pleasure for pleasure’s sake.
A different pop escapism is at work on Dougall’s new solo album, A New Illusion, which is her third since departing The Pipettes in 2008. In comparison with her previous album Stellular, A New Illusion features more aesthetic control from Dougall herself, leaning towards more organic arrangements with fewer synthetics.
While Stellular had hints of shiny ‘80s new-wave pop, A New Illusion often throws the listener into a blissful world where the time and place are less certain. The album’s sophistication and tasteful production puts Dougall in a class with acts like Saint Etienne and Broadcast without really sounding like them.
Mysterious evocations of folk pop come with acoustic guitar notes, while piano and string parts bring a certain classy quality; at times, the natural/artificial balance sometimes leans toward the artificial side, like on “Take What You Can Get”, with a self-conscious production style of an auteur (think Joe Meek).
One of the album’s high points is its title track, with lyrics about finding reality behind veiled appearances and lines like “Paradise shouldn’t be so hard to find.”
The reverberating “Echoes” uses stark drum machine beats and hand-muted guitar and bass notes—and eventually bowed strings—to gently fill the room as Dougall sings with an aloof style that isn’t entirely guarded, as she lets her notes linger with clarity before gingerly thickening them with vibrato.
While the melodies on “That’s Where the Trouble Started” don’t quite stick, on one level it hardly matters, since the sound-world on the track—and the whole album—is so enveloping.
Jim Sauter & Kid Millions
Safe and Sane
(Astral Spirits/Family Vineyard)
The title of the new album from saxophonist Jim Sauter and drummer Kid Millions, Safe and Sane, brings to mind the Cthulhu Mythos of horror writer H.P. Lovecraft and the ultimate fate that all humans in that universe must suffer: one either dies a likely horrible, premature death, or one goes insane. It’s obvious from listening to just a few seconds of Safe and Sane that it is neither of those things.
Sauter is primarily known as a member of the intense and pioneering sax/sax/guitar noise trio Borbetomagus, which is remarkably in its 40th year of existence, and fans of Borbetomagus will find a lot to love here.
Kid Millions’ main gig is with the eclectic, boundary-pushing rock band Oneida, and he also creates long minimalist percussion pieces in his ensemble Man Forever and has side projects and collaborations, including the infamous Jäh Division, which performs Joy Division covers in a Jamaican/dub style. On Safe and Sane, Kid Millions dispenses with structure and goes with a free-jazz drumming approach.
Compared with the previous albums Bloom and Fountain from the duo, Safe and Sane is the most intense of the three; while the previous two albums had occasional moments of space, Safe and Sane is brutally unrelenting, featuring two long tracks—one 32 minutes long, one 11 minutes long—with a dense marathon of sound.
Sauter runs his tenor sax through electronics, and while distortion destroys clarity, it can also twist sounds to make interesting timbres; his playing is ferocious with pained and painful squawking and squealing. He can sound like a wild, wailing guitar, a harmonica being abused or a swarm of angry buzzing bees; at times, it sounds like he’s gargling hot asphalt.
He’ll wrench strange noises from his instrument or go on unhinged runs, and sometimes he’ll just linger on a few notes, seemingly torturing them.
Kid Millions is definitely on a path with his long sustained thrashings, and he seems to make equal time for his drums and cymbals, going for maximum noise and motion, as if trying to single-handedly recreate John Coltrane’s Ascension on drums in double-time.
It should be known that Safe and Sane is definitely a “love it or hate it” album, and although it doesn’t have the power to steal lives, its constant, compelling barrage and volcanic energy will probably make most people lose their minds.