Premiere: Lisa Busby – “Fingers in the Gloss”

Lisa Busby just released her latest compositions, Fingers in the Gloss, and the artist plays with textural, minimal noise and striking pop vocals. Busby’s vocal performance is beyond measured, a soft, sometimes stretching accompaniment to the repetitive layers of her noise. She constructs each piece in such a way that softness and care give way to moments of heightened awareness, crescendo, or bursts of noise. Otherwise, even the synthetics have a certain shy, waking quality, hinting at a woodwind, or an over-driven organ. The title track might be Busby’s most accessible statement, as other compositions dive deeper in the noise and confrontational sequences. As the title track crashes to a halt before its rebirth in its last minute, Busby showcases her editorial view, slicing samples or synthetic parts into an abrupt or rocky landscape that overwhelms the smooth feelings from earlier in the song. Jenny Hval’s most recent work comes to mind as a comparison for Busby, who undoubtedly plays with pop in rougher and less produced landscapes, while also reaching the same feeling of unhinged imagination and singular noise that defines Hval’s efforts.

Order a copy of Fingers in the Gloss from Busby’s Bandcamp.