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The Slow-Motion World
of Snowpony
Live in Los Angeles, October
9 and 10, 1998
The
cover art for The Slow-Motion World of Snowpony will
definitely be among the worst of this or any other year, but the
album’s lush, thundering, ethereal weave of sounds may
make it the best debut record of 1998. Bassist Debbie Googe (from
My Bloody Valentine) and drummer Max Corradi (who will be replaced
on tour by Kevin Bass) form a powerful foundation for the aural
experimentation of singer-keyboardist-sampling diva Katharine Gifford,
who left Stereolab two years ago. Gifford’s voice has something
of the nonchalant allure of Luscious Jackson or the monotone
indifference of Garbage’s Shirley Manson, but her lyrics are
far more provocative and piercing. The trio’s moody work is
marked by hypnotizing keyboards, tape loops and samples (among them
snippets from punk heroes The Sonics and Nick Cave), along with
haunting and curious mixtures of industrial, East Indian, ambient
and jazz rhythms, driven with a volatile — and sometimes slow-motion
— engine of drum ‘n’ bass.
October 9 at The
Garage, 4519 Santa Monica Blvd., Silverlake. (213) 683-4447.
October 10 at The
Troubadour, 9081 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood. (310) 276-6168
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