"I came to find a friend / To interrupt the ending / I didn’t know it then / How skilfully I could pretend..." photo by Willem van den Heever
South African Lucy Kruger & The Lost Boys craft such a dark hungry sound on "Risk" from their current ten track recently released full length "Teen Tapes (for performing your own stunts)"* and the sonic landscape of guitars that sound like clashing metal, and drums that feel like heartbeats, stalking walls of bass, what feels like screaming guitar notes in tandem and pushing against each other creating dissonance, or maybe ambient electronica. It all sounds so dire, like a distant machine war. As a framework for Kruger's stark, droll, pained vox and dark poetic lyrics that might signal a clash of inner turmoil, a metaphorical creature that takes you entire being or is it about succumbing to your own inner fear. I don't know but listening in closed cup headphones Kruger and her collaborators create a massive piece of dark cinema.
Kruger's ability to openly bleed made me flash on PJ Harvey individually and with Nick Cave as a collaborator. Even though Kruger's style is different there is a similarity on some sonic cellular level and certainly Harvey's willingness to artistically bleed from top to bottom screams female empowerment. Kruger's explores many themes in her music including "the centrality of women" in her lyrics.
Kruger's ability to openly bleed made me flash on PJ Harvey individually and with Nick Cave as a collaborator. Even though Kruger's style is different there is a similarity on some sonic cellular level and certainly Harvey's willingness to artistically bleed from top to bottom screams female empowerment. Kruger's explores many themes in her music including "the centrality of women" in her lyrics.
“There is more pressure on a woman to figure herself out in private and then step out with a formed identity. It’s suffocating,” Kruger says. “How are we supposed to discover who we are if we are not allowed to make a mess? To leak, spill, sweat, spit, shriek. Sometimes playing involves getting scratched or wounded. Laughing. Weeping. It also involves glorious thrill and the chance to surrender. I’m looking for that."
"Risk" is the kind of song that invades your senses, that not only gets under your skin but grows beneath it. All the songs on "Teen Tapes (for performing your own stunts)" were written and produced by Lucy Kruger & The Lost Boys comprised of Lucy Kruger (vocals and guitar), Liú Mottes (guitar), Andreas Miranda (bass) and Martin Perret (drums, percussion and electronic production).
"Risk" is the kind of song that invades your senses, that not only gets under your skin but grows beneath it. All the songs on "Teen Tapes (for performing your own stunts)" were written and produced by Lucy Kruger & The Lost Boys comprised of Lucy Kruger (vocals and guitar), Liú Mottes (guitar), Andreas Miranda (bass) and Martin Perret (drums, percussion and electronic production).
The Official Video for "Risk" was created by Cape Town collective Cult Wife, is an animation of a lyric comic illustrated by Nena Maree, a fellow Cape Town artist.
*The tapes trilogy, which began in 2019 with the introverted collection of lullabies, "Sleeping Tapes for Some Girls", and followed with the equally tender but perhaps more intense "Transit Tapes (for women who move furniture around)", documents both a literal and metaphorical move away from and towards something. "Teen Tapes (for performing your own stunts)" is the much needed arrival and release.
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
https://www.facebook.com/LucyKrugerOfficial
https://lucykruger.bandcamp.com/
https://open.spotify.com/artist/2qFDhzWBDqbPOjhy8Fkl3u
https://www.instagram.com/lucy_kruger/
To encounter Lucy Kruger’s music is to witness a singular journey of constant reflection that is producing an ever-widening arc of creativity. Kruger approaches her artistry with the care of an archaeologist seeking all the interwoven elements that make up the historical whole.
Lucy grew up in Johannesburg where she began writing songs as a 16-year-old and laid the foundation for her absorbing, fervent live performances while studying music and drama in Grahamstown. She then spent several years in Cape Town where she first met long term musical collaborator, André Leo. It was with Leo that she first played in Berlin during a Medicine Boy European tour in 2015.
Kruger explores many themes in her music including the centrality of women in Kruger’s lyrics, as listeners, and in her own life. “There is more pressure on a woman to figure herself out in private and then step out with a formed identity. It’s suffocating,” she says. “How are we supposed to discover who we are if we are not allowed to make a mess? To leak, spill, sweat, spit, shriek. Sometimes playing involves getting scratched or wounded. Laughing. Weeping. It also involves glorious thrill and the chance to surrender. I’m looking for that.
“I do not know how to write without making it personal, and for now I do not wish to”. She does this as a gift, both to herself, and the listener who might need it on their own journey, filled with all the risks of what it means to be human.
- Diane Coetzer
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
https://www.facebook.com/LucyKrugerOfficial
https://lucykruger.bandcamp.com/
https://open.spotify.com/artist/2qFDhzWBDqbPOjhy8Fkl3u
https://www.instagram.com/lucy_kruger/
To encounter Lucy Kruger’s music is to witness a singular journey of constant reflection that is producing an ever-widening arc of creativity. Kruger approaches her artistry with the care of an archaeologist seeking all the interwoven elements that make up the historical whole.
Lucy grew up in Johannesburg where she began writing songs as a 16-year-old and laid the foundation for her absorbing, fervent live performances while studying music and drama in Grahamstown. She then spent several years in Cape Town where she first met long term musical collaborator, André Leo. It was with Leo that she first played in Berlin during a Medicine Boy European tour in 2015.
Kruger explores many themes in her music including the centrality of women in Kruger’s lyrics, as listeners, and in her own life. “There is more pressure on a woman to figure herself out in private and then step out with a formed identity. It’s suffocating,” she says. “How are we supposed to discover who we are if we are not allowed to make a mess? To leak, spill, sweat, spit, shriek. Sometimes playing involves getting scratched or wounded. Laughing. Weeping. It also involves glorious thrill and the chance to surrender. I’m looking for that.
“I do not know how to write without making it personal, and for now I do not wish to”. She does this as a gift, both to herself, and the listener who might need it on their own journey, filled with all the risks of what it means to be human.
- Diane Coetzer
* * *
We get by with a little help from our friends
Lucy Kruger & The Lost Boys, South Africa, indie rock, guitar rock, alt rock, heavy, darkly drawn, personal, female empowerment, "Risk", ten track album, "Teen Tapes (for performing your own stunts)",
No comments:
Post a Comment