"Move on, I suppose / The host with the most / I’ll open a can of worms / And no-one learns..."
The stair stepping artful melancholia and survivorship of "Cassowary" by alternative artist Miriam Clancy is haunting, mixing dark whimsy, baroque, gothic noir atmospheres glued together with Miriam's stunning vocals. With a dense emotionality, Miriam embodies her words fully. Every syllable feels felt, purged, needles threaded and painful wounds sewn up and exposed to the air. When Miriam eases into these fragile high notes as the music swells around her, I experienced goose bumps skating across my skin and a chill run across my shoulders. One of the most beautiful, expressive vocal performances I have heard in a long, long time.
The supporting players along with Clancy (vocals, acoustic guitar) are Will Graefe (acoustic guitar, electric guitar), Jeremy McDonald (piano, bass, juno, Mellotron and Mike Riddleberger (drums, percussion) who all play their supporting parts exquisitely. Clancy, originally from New Zealand who settled in both New York and Pennsylvania derives inspiration, existential foot holds from her life with these diverse locales casting different light and shadows on her diverse sounds.
The following passage from some of Mariam's press notey stuff sticks with me like a small part of a movie that I want to be made, that I want to see:
[Growing up living between a hippy mother and Catholic grandmother, Miriam became obsessed with dramatic, piano-led pieces, practicing singing to drown out her brother’s guitar shredding in the next room. The intense draw to music ran in the Clancy family: her absentee dad sang and played melancholic crooner tunes in bars, usually ending in street brawls.]
While we cannot see 'that' movie, we can all see the evocative Official Video for "Cassowary" produced by Winger Brothers and directed by Miriam Clancy and JP Winger, shot in the beautiful Berks County, Pennsylvania.
The gorgeous fragility of "Cassowary" is track 1 from Miriam Clancy's 2023 album "Black Heart" out now.
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
https://twitter.com/miriamclancy
https://www.instagram.com/miriamclancy/
https://www.miriamclancy.com/
https://open.spotify.com/artist/5DbjELjlQBPVm1v5F6pFH1
After shifting camp from New Zealand to New York City, followed by a left-field move to Appalachian Pennsylvania, Miriam Clancy has brought forth Black Heart – a melodic Gen X explosion of heart, rage and release reminiscent of the great female artists at the fore of 90's alt-music and the era's definitive sonic aesthetic.
The album is a reckoning of intensely personal stories of intergenerational history, longing, desire and shattered dreams, into which Miriam breathes life and texture. Her characters come to life through deft storytelling; beckoning vocals envelop and elevate the listener to each narrative of eleven different histories, where gallows humour and ethereal romance frame otherwise heavy themes of death, suicide, addiction, beginnings and endings.
Miriam says, “This record is a tsunami, a spiritual purge – smashing out my big feelings with an insight that growing up too soon has gifted me … It's also calling out the dependency most of us have with connectivity, FOMO and being overwhelmed with too much info—too accessible by our own compulsive hand and laying ourselves to waste. It's handy and beautiful but we are running straight into the sun and can't help it. I can't help it either. We are all going down together!”
Black Heart captures the brilliance of Miriam and her telepathic band featuring Jeremy McDonald, Will Graefe and Mike Riddleberger as they move through intricate clouds of Clannad-esque guitars and vocals, twisting sparse folk-rock deep cuts into fleeting moments of Roxy Music influenced art-pop, and out again via a grand piano apocalypse. All pulled together and torn apart by Miriam's angelic voice, with pivotal moments drawn from her indie-folk beginnings.
After shifting camp from New Zealand to New York City, followed by a left-field move to Appalachian Pennsylvania, Miriam Clancy has brought forth Black Heart – a melodic Gen X explosion of heart, rage and release reminiscent of the great female artists at the fore of 90's alt-music and the era's definitive sonic aesthetic.
The album is a reckoning of intensely personal stories of intergenerational history, longing, desire and shattered dreams, into which Miriam breathes life and texture. Her characters come to life through deft storytelling; beckoning vocals envelop and elevate the listener to each narrative of eleven different histories, where gallows humour and ethereal romance frame otherwise heavy themes of death, suicide, addiction, beginnings and endings.
Miriam says, “This record is a tsunami, a spiritual purge – smashing out my big feelings with an insight that growing up too soon has gifted me … It's also calling out the dependency most of us have with connectivity, FOMO and being overwhelmed with too much info—too accessible by our own compulsive hand and laying ourselves to waste. It's handy and beautiful but we are running straight into the sun and can't help it. I can't help it either. We are all going down together!”
Black Heart captures the brilliance of Miriam and her telepathic band featuring Jeremy McDonald, Will Graefe and Mike Riddleberger as they move through intricate clouds of Clannad-esque guitars and vocals, twisting sparse folk-rock deep cuts into fleeting moments of Roxy Music influenced art-pop, and out again via a grand piano apocalypse. All pulled together and torn apart by Miriam's angelic voice, with pivotal moments drawn from her indie-folk beginnings.
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