[Click here for Soundtrack]
Just because you might've not heard it, doesn't mean it wasn't amazing. This album MOVED me. It inspired me to create. It inspired me to think, both inside and outside of the box. Interiors is an album that stretches the limits of possibilities. It's a bungee jump into the mind. It speaks in a geometric language that Cameron Mesirow (Glasser) conveys so beautifully. Her voice is like a harp and her music is sublime. These beats are so intricate and so sick, that the smartest singers and MC's will get their hands on this, maneuver the music, engineer it to fit their styles and create art derived from and inspired by Glasser's original art form. The moment you see that this is a page out of the book of Björk, a light will go off in your head and you'll realize that no one has come this close. Glasser asks you to crumble the walls of perception and explore the inner workings of your creativity, devoid of the constructs that limit our movement and progress; Interiors is her vessel for this
The daughter of artistic parents, she's clearly the byproduct of an eccentric, performance art-based upbringing. The album's opening track, "Shape" discusses the mechanism of crumbling the walls of locational confinement. It seeks to see the world, understand the way it's built and let that idea inspire you. Arriving at this epiphany frees her mind:
My home has no shape
Nothing to sustain me
But it keeps me safe
From imagined pain
In the dim light of the truth all you can do is bow
The last line resonates the most. Being so overcome with emotion, when you realize that you've unlocked the power of your mind. This is such a fierce lyric. For Glasser, it took a relocation from San Francisco to Manattan to inspire this record. She moved in order to create the album and was inspired by the city's architecture. How it's "shape" affected her process and way of thinking. The geometry and mathematical sound of it all feels like you're in an art gallery devoted to cubism and falling into a different dimension. On "Landscape" she presents one of the best beats of the year. Evoking the feel of a Japanese tea garden with a geisha playing a koto
I'm in your landscape
And I don't want to go back to mine
Back...She succumbs to her surroundings and the aura that her subject has created. The haunting violin punctuates over the chorus and creates yet another atmosphere for us to ponder in
The Björk comparisons are eery. "Forge" conjures up memories of a sped up "All Is Full of Love," with the rhythm of the bass hit differentiating the two. "Keam Theme" reminds me of Bjork's epic "I Miss You". The big beat making us want to bounce as her ethereal backing vocals sputter in while she lets the drums and the complex percussion chime in. The organic sounds of bamboo are interspersed with the digital melody. Much like Björk, the performance art aspect is not lost on her live sets either, as she loses herself in the music and lets out what she's created with digital displays depicting shapes and designs that enrich the music. The motion, tells as much of the story as her words:
I move on the map to a new coordinate
I'm a dot on a grid
I know what I am
The flow of a place is a passive document
And I surprise myself by being part of itThe human brain is a powerful phenomenon. To be able to understand how it works, namely what variables trigger it to channel it's true expression, is the essence of art. In Glasser's case, her art reaches far beyond music. Its the confluence of the digital and the organic. It's the use of art to add to the depth of the music. This was a truly inspiring album and when you speak with Cameron Mesirow, she's so humble about it. It's just a matter of time before her art is elevated to the scale that will rightfully allow her to claim her title as the second coming of Björk
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To listen to any of the albums on our countdown, check out our Spotify playlist here
Peep the archives of all of the albums reviewed up to this point
#5 is due up tomorrow!
