Lisa Germano
In the Maybe World
(hear it)

My favorite vocal sound ever. Listening to this music on headphones at the Solana Center Laundromat today I heard part of why. Along with the vocal I hear a static - I think, possibly, Germano may have recorded the vocals and possibly scratch instrument tracks on a cassette four track? The instruments are all very clean and studioy. I love the bass on this album, too - at times, there's just a thick sludge of low sound, like several bassists were trying out different parts and they just left them all in.

Headphones also revealed to me in how much stereo awesomeness Lisa and producer (Jamie Candiloro) revelled. There are all kinds of places where drums and vocals travel around the ears. It's very careful, a beat here, a beat there. I conclude that the music was mixed on a computer.

One of my favorite albums, by OP8 (ie. Calexico and Howe Gelb) with Lisa Germano, called Slush, is recalled by Lisa's work here much more than by Calexico's. To tell the truth, I've felt so let down by the Calexico lack of weirdness that I love on OP8 - now I see that it was propelled by Germano. I should have known, since her contemporaneous albums were all super-weird, but I didn't. Probably it was sexism, although I would rather be perfect.

bb, 29 Jan 08