All budding artists could take a note from Glasser – if you’re going to make music and you find yourself getting to the stage where you’re signed and recording material, please aim for the stars and don’t stop until you reach them. If you don’t quite manage it then perhaps that retail job isn’t so bad when you re-consider. Not that Glasser, (real name Cameron Mesirow), was ever destined for retail, with a mother that tasted the charts back in the 80s, with the band Human Sexual Response and a father who was a member of the odd-ball stage show Blue Man Group. Following a few brief temptations that have been calling out to us from the mist since mid-2009, with tours supporting the likes of Sigur Ros and The XX, Glasser are now ready to release the debut album, Rings. The music blogs have enjoyed ameliorating that mist ever since, with buzzing plaudits and much online salivation. On board for the album is Matt Popieluch, from Recommender favourites, Foreign Born, who are masters of yearning alt folk with a little pop and a little indie found at either edge. We consider that band to be Autumnal and cosy, where as Glasser is the leaf blower, clearing the clutter with synths and strings in place of the acoustic guitars. Much like our recent post on Niki And The Dove, with comparisons to Natasha Kahn and Liz Fraser, you will hear celestial vocals, but Cameron is colder, more like the wintery Fever Ray, or the upcoming IAmAmIWhoAmI. However, the synths never buzz, rather they drift in waves and the melodies are floating in a motionless freeze. Tracks such as Plane Temp will remind you of Enya at her most pointless, with intangible vocals, but it’s still enchanting and just as pretty. Things warm up a little with tracks such as Glad, which sounds like one long pause for thought, or the album opener Apply, which sounds like she drafted in the Doozers on drums. Tremmel oxygenates things once again hitting the kind of vocal notes that would make sirens seem baritone. The whole album fixes a stare upon you from the start and it’s unease never lets up throughout, although this is no ambuscaded attack, for it’s more like receiving a long glance from a strikingly beautiful member of the opposite sex – the kind that disarms you right before their eventual smile warms your heart. Rings is released on the hot indie label True Panther Sounds this week – you can buy it here. Whether or not Glasser makes it to the aforementioned stars that she’s aiming for, one thing is sure, on this evidence, the trip was worth it. (MB)
Find her here: Myspace
Hear her here: GLASSER – APPLY
Hear her here: GLASSER -TREMMEL (JAMIE XX REMIX)
Hear her here: GLASSER – LESSONS LEARNED (YACHT REMIX)
