Jackson Scott‘s Calypso project delivers a swirling brew of warped psychedelia and woozy shoegaze on their debut EP Oracle, out now on the “French” label Atelier Ciseaux. Scott, whose first album, Melbourne, came out in 2013 on Fat Possum, is joined here by Samantha Richman and Sheets Tucker; but, as the Asheville, North Carolina group recently informed Impose, they view themselves more as a musical collective, with the amount of members “vary[ing] at any given time”. Calypso’s debut EP is a “mixture of written songs and recording experimentation”, and while the album’s six tracks trip the stylistic gambit, the prevailing sonic ethos seems to stem from some “turned-on” recording sessions.
Oracle‘s strange effects are immediately apparent on the EP’s namesake, with this opening audio fragment seeming to suspend looped female vocals in a permanent flutter, while chiming strands of guitar twinkle in the syrup. Like passing thru neon colored doorway beads at some bohemian crash pad, once on the other side we find ourselves face-to-face with the “Velvet Void“. Twee and minimal, the track’s initial bedroom cast is blown out the door when the full band joins in a fuzzed-out groove that delivers a 90’s era, K Records vibe. “Diablo Grins” follows that like melting candy, with a dizzy strum of phasing guitar eventually taking off into face melting shoegaze that features an ecstatic vocal delivery and slow motion micro-dot churn–one of the EP’s many highlights.
“Psychoactive Basement Session #1” sounds exactly like that, with this track’s reeling circus organ leading the band into a 10 minute jam. Eventually the cut melts back down into a smokey stew of sonic protoplasm, before reconfiguring once more into a whirling dervish of sound built around hi-speed organ runs and throbbing bass. Oracle closes out with two psych-tinged, garage numbers. “Isn’t Now” features grungey bass fuzz, a puckish vocal delivery, and the electric strychnine of guitar freakout, while “Dichotomy” turns the dream machine back on, delivering gorgeous walls of shimmering guitar and ethereal, harmonized vocals.
If you want a physical copy of Calypso’s Oracle EP you’re gonna have to act fast, as the limited edition cassette is down to only 30 copies as of today…
