We'll call this one live blogging as I'm checking out the debut record of Philly's Tickley Feather. I heard a bit of hype about her - Feather is the one woman act of Annie Sachs- a few months back, when she got signed to Paw Tracks, the label created by the boys inAnimal Collective.
Then I saw her a few weeks back at the Cake Shop, with about 20 people in the audience. Although petite and endearing in concert, the songs suffered from being partially pre-recorded or having slow delays in layering sounds/textures. While Andrew Bird and Owen Pallett are masters of this form, Ms. Sachs struggled to have the songs cohere. But what was lacking live is perfectly suited for studio tinkering.
Actually "at home" tinkering is probably more accurate. The songs have an amateur, lo-fi 8-track quality to them akin to label mate Ariel Pink. Clocking in at 33 minutes, breaking the record into 20 tracks is a bit overkill, especially as songs like the 46 second "ooooo" bleeds seamlessly into the following track, and it's unclear where many tracks start and end. Most of the brief tracks are front loaded, so the second half is packed with stand out tracks. The ethereal "keyboards is drunk", even with the keyboard stumbles, intentional or not, is haunting.
"Sorry Party" follows which layers Sachs' voice as she intelligibly throws out a call and response to herself. Truthfully, you pretty much can't make out anything she says on the record. Partly due to the layered vocals, partly due to the tremolo effects she puts over her voice, and partly due to her Bjork meets Nina Persson delivery and cadence (respectively).
She'll never find a large audience, and I can't say I'd see her live again without further enticement, but the record is a knockout. Not for anyone who wants to hum along to a strong melody, but for those with a tolerance and penchant for lo-fi.
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