The things we do for love. Or for money. Or for the love of money. Or, perhaps, simply because some things need to be done. Listening to a band like Miss Rayon convinced me that they are doing what needs to be done and their album “Eclipse” isn’t so much a collection of songs but a commentary on a world where music has lost the ability to entrance.
Certainly, the hypnotic groove that the band adopts is redolent, albeit in a notably more polished form, of the post punk era and the disconnected lyrics often seem like an evolution of hippy tripping and the angrier grunge styles but they are mere pieces of a jigsaw with no clear picture. Evolution is the key concept here and the dissociative drifting that pervades “Eclipse” seems far deeper and wider than those musical influences from the past that must have driven Miss Rayon into the recording studio.
So, have Eric Sabatino, Hannah Blilie and Jenny Logan stumbled on the secret formula for turning the music of today into something interesting and different? Their diffident minimalism may indeed be powered by the psychic presence of the likes of ESG yet this sound of the city shouts not of protest but of paranoia, isolation and emotional nihilism. Miss Rayon are deeper than the boot in your SUV and, in years to come, no doubt musical commentators will be adding “Eclipse” to their favourite underground albums of all time.
The album is available from Bandcamp and for your playlist, “Every Man Has A Woman Who Loves Him (Yoko Ono)” and “What To Wear” will get you hitting the repeat button.