Crease
Constellation, 2022
8/10
The debut album from Vicky Mettler, aka Kee Avil, the 10 tracks here are quite experimental in nature, where her producer, guitar and singer status is utilized amid the atypical and thriving song craft.
“See, my shadow” starts the listen with upbeat guitar alongside breathy but firm singing as the climate turns quite artistic, nearly sci-fi and entirely unpredictable, and this creativity continues to “saf”, where a poetic and hazy approach sounds like it should soundtrack a trip to another dimension.
“And I” lands in the middle and places acoustic guitar at the beginning, where a hypnotic, hushed atmosphere unfolds, while “Okra Ooze” finds all sorts of atypical rhythm and iconoclastic percussive ideas to cultivate in the curious post-punk fueled affair.
Landing near the end, “HHHH” is a bit glitchy, sometimes bare and mostly spacey in a cosmic sort of way, “Gone Again” exits the listen with a twisted sort of lullaby that’s vocally soft and musically mysterious.
There’s help from Eric Craven on drum samples across a track, and Mark Molnar’s cello makes an appearance, too. Otherwise, this is a raw, abstract and sonically challenging peek into the mind of a very talented artist.
Travels well with: Andrea Parkins- Two Rooms From The Memory Palace; Eli Wallace- Precepts