Simon Scott – Bunny

Twenty years earlier, the cute old lady everyone refers to as Bunny was “Betty”, the woman every guy wanted and none of them got, but you know how it is with beauty and youth, they fade leaving only traces of what once was. The dark, smoky lounges the chromatic tune played on double bass, the long cigarette filters hanging from full red lips, these were all now things of the past. Memories that come and go, pleasant ones and darker, heavier ones she wished she’d forgotten. In his second release under Erik Skodvin’s Miasmah label, Simon Scott creates this narrative, and over forty minutes lays it out in a dream sequence of ups and downs, clear blue skies turned gloomy grey, clear constructed memories to a patchwork of imagery that one tries to make sense of. In short, Scott made a human being materialize out of nothing in front of the listener’s eyes, a feat few artists can muster up.

Now, this story might be the furthest thing from the truth, maybe bunny was a cute little rabbit and Betty an ugly mid-aged woman that no one cared to look twice at, and both had nothing to do with each other, or perhaps Betty had bunny á l’orange one time and that was the end of it. The music however, makes one almost certain that a relation lies between all the songs contained within this album, that this is one story and not a mosaic of random elements.

The two years that separate the release of this and Navigare have apparently changed a lot in Scott’s approach to music, or to put it in different terms, have taken him to a new direction stepping further away from his days in Slowdive. The opening tracks display that straight away, brimming with jazz influences and dark tones, samples sounds and crackled vinyls. An early highlight of the album is presented in “Labano”, the slow moving piano driven piece. Here we can hear traces of his old shoegazing, reverb loving self but it is all kept to the background. It is there to add flavor and does so fantastically.

Sadly, this is contrasted straight away in the first half of “Radiances” which is all about the fuzzy wall of guitar sound and its presence in the middle of the album, playing as its centerpiece brings the level of enjoyment down a bit. It is not a band song, not at all, actually I am pretty positive that it would be a favorite among many who listen to this album in search of some Pygmalion in Bunny, but it deviates the album from one mood to the next and overstays its welcome and by its end reduces the effect of the earlier, more insightful tracks. Thankfully though, the second half of the track saves the rest of the album and puts things back on track. The narrative is preserved.

One needn’t look farther than “Drilla” to see this sound used in a more effective manner, the song’s placement at the end of this nostalgic road ends the album on a bright tone, one that’s needed at that point. It alters the mood at a more natural point so to speak, without hindering flow and urges the listeners to take the same path that got them to it again. A path filled with mystique, with beauty that’s contrasted by the ugliness and uneasiness of the world surrounding us.

Simon captures the audience with a blend of his present and past personas. It is almost a midway point between dream pop and darkjazz, experimenting in combinations of both and yielding some great results in creating strong imagery out of sound. It is only a matter of time now until he reaches the heights of his potential in this new direction and until then, we will have Bunny to cherish.

- Mohammed Ashraf for Fluid Radio

www.miasmah.com
www.simonscott.org