Brisbane, Australia resident Laura Hill is Scraps. Filtering vintage computer instrumentation through decidedly low-tech “bedroom” territory, she imbues Electric Ocean with the strains of early electronic pop. While impossible to describe as innovative, Hill’s musical and emotional fragility couples with her evocation of chilly ambiance to elevate her far above the level of mere nostalgia mongering.
For some inhabitants of 2014, there can nothing more retrograde, at least in terms of recorded sound, than a quartet wielding standard songs via guitars, bass, drums, and vocals. To these forward-thinking folks the 21st century should not be burdened with distortion-peddling garage bands, Beatle-powered pop-rockers, and the overhauled simplicity of umpteenth-generation cherubic punkers. Viva technology! Viva the moderne!
And others, specifically those who consider the merger of live instruments and the creative impulse to be a timeless combination, will just as quickly liken the phenomenon of contempo techno revisionism to the flogging of a lifeless artistic pony. Not just an example of style over substance, but the latest permutation of a trend harkening back to Sha Na Na.
As much as like to think of myself as a non-rockist avant-garde-loving kind of guy, I must admit to falling just a wee bit closer to the classicist side of this scenario. The potential of electronics is far from exhausted of course, but I’m consistently more than just slightly underwhelmed by the vast majority of current computer-reliant offerings, especially when they veer into a purely pop milieu.
Naturally there are exceptions, for after all I do deem myself a non-rockist avant-garde-loving sort of gent, and the latest to make my acquaintance is Scraps. Electric Ocean is not Laura Hill’s debut, but it did serve as my introduction to her sound-world. And though listening to its nine songs also inspired certain suspicions, substantiating them required the inspection of her 2011 LP Classic Shits.
Released on Brisbane micro-imprint Bedroom Suck (now known worldwide for their involvement with estimable Aussie combo Blank Realm, though Scraps and the disheveled rock of that combo are, at least on the surface, significantly different affairs), Classic Shits collected a slew of tracks documented by Hill between 2006-09, and hearing them lends the key to the Fire Records-issued Electric Ocean’s considerable if gradually unfolding appeal.
Upon first listen, second-album Scraps connected like an exercise in recreating the once state-of-the-art but now low-tech gloss of electronic pop at the dawn of the 1980s. It only took a few spins of that disc for a nagging undertow to begin dragging me away from the accessible center, and upon hearing Classic Shits I was way out in the deep weeds.
Far from technoid in nature, Hill’s formative work explores the quirky nooks of solo home-recorded art-pop architecture, featuring tunes bold if fitfully successful. By contrast, Electric Ocean’s surface conventionality actually possesses varying degrees of subtlety, with Hill’s prior eclecticism internalized to provide flashes of understated experimentalism analogous to the sources that serve as the LP’s template.
To be clear, a fair amount of Hill’s unusualness comes from her vocal approach. Where a significant amount of techno pop employed a singing style aptly assessed as crooning, Hill’s oft lethargic and occasionally downright shambolic delivery (sleepy and whispery a la the low-fi side of dream-pop), keeps this out of the New Wave karaoke bag. Yes, opener “Mushroom Gods” buzzes and flutters like prime OMD, but the drowsy emoting of Hill adds welcome distinctiveness.
However, “Lonely Motorbike” rapidly thickens the plot by being an instrumental, its rhythmic rigidity, engagingly rudimentary melodicism and chattering sonic residue instantly reminiscent of the more ambitious side of the late-‘70s/early-‘80s electronic wave, e.g. The Normal and the initial output of Gary Numan and Ultravox!
With unexpected lyrics about roller disco, greater vocal commitment on the part of Hill, and as its six minutes progress, increasingly sly aural layering, “Saphire Plaza” bups along a la Human League circa-Dare, and it succeeds through a gradual and non-disruptive accumulation of oddness. This strategy continues on the title cut, the music swimming with a woozy but anthemic techno pop melodiousness as Hill crafts everything and steadfastly avoids singing in a straightforward manner.
Indeed, she’s often flirting with being out-of-synch, the friction lending the music just a hint of an outsider quality (at moments, Hill vaguely reminds me of noted street musician Susan Dietrich aka The Space Lady). But “Asleep” finds her breathily infiltrating the song’s core for a tangibly more natural fit, though as the extended, again nearly six-minute track unwinds the echo-laden and progressively more screwy atmosphere is far from calculatedly retro.
Certain selections do undeniably cultivate a first-term Reagan vibe. That’s the case with “Projections,” an uptempo keyboard workout that’s some will regard as this set’s “dance floor mover.” And to be frank, if cuts of this nature were the LP’s norm it would be a far lesser affair. But in the context of Electric Ocean’s multi-course banquet, “Projections” stands as a succinct diversion amongst the more restlessly if often implicitly experimental creations.
But Scraps doesn’t require a broad canvas to make an effective impression. For example, in two short minutes “Flying” combines Hill’s songwriting proficiency with attractively eccentric if structurally gentle surroundings for a tuneful result, while the even more brief “Holiday” throbs like a fragment of Euro electro new wave at its most brazenly arty. If you’re familiar with the film Liquid Sky (or more to the point its soundtrack) than you know exactly what I’m describing.
“Saphire Plaza” and “Asleep” are the album’s largest servings, and they do the best job of communicating Hill’s developing talent. But “Flying” and “Holiday” fit the name of this project like Day-Glo legwarmers, encapsulating enticing scraps that highlight Electric Ocean as a one-woman endeavor in non-trite home-recording. Additionally, “Projections” reveals her potential as an accessible “hit maker,” and “Lonely Motorbike” and “Electric Ocean” emphasize her budding skill at non-popish sound construction.
Closer “Gone” mingles the captured aura of beach tide and chirping birds with what’s arguably the disc’s prettiest melody. And it’s one that flirts with the twee, at least until the point where she starts belting out vocals like an R&B diva. It’s a tidbit (a scrap, if you will) of musical info suggesting that next time out Hill just might shed Electric Ocean’s techno pop skin entirely.
Altogether, this LP is a remarkably consistent expression of Laura Hill’s ability. It falls shy of the masterful (though not by that much) but more importantly displays great strides next to the not-negligible potential found in her initial work. Whether she persists in this mode or darts off onto a different avenue, her continued steps should be worth hearing.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
B+
