- A bewitching mixture of sound collage, post-punk and avant-garde music with incisive lyrics.
- Since the mid-'10s, the London-based, singer, producer and dancer has been releasing a wide range of sound collage art and gilded pop, including another project, Marina Zispin, a darkwave collaboration with electronic musician Martyn Reid. This work is all held together by her beguiling, diaristic style. Her new album Pattern Damage is a tapestry of avant-garde music, weird folk, darkwave, synth-pop and illbient blended in a unique approach that she has previously described as "five conversations all happening at the same time."
Building on a string of self-releases and DIY offerings on experimental UK imprints First Terrace and Them There Records, Scout has struck a chord with her new record for Manchester label Sferic. The imprint has been home to some of the most mercurial names in ambient music of recent years, Space Afrika and Jake Muir among them. It feels like only a matter of time before Scout breaks through to bigger audiences. Her restless worldbuilding, using strings and layering Elysian vocals to create the ethereal feeling of a deja vu, like walking into an abandoned space where raves or parties once happened, is uncanny and emotional.
Scout is a born alchemist. SoundCloud rap and dream pop come together on "Chances," along with the occasional burst of breakbeats that skitter by in a heated rush. On a second feature, "Almost Nothing," choreographer and artist Darkmarik sneers, "Get the fuck up out of here / haven't you had enough" atop a looping hymn sample. The second half of the track is lush with cinematic production and Klein-esque vocal techniques.
That reference is instructive. Over the last near-decade of honing her sound, Scout has collaborated with a roll call of South London's boundary pushings experimental musicians: Mica Levi, Coby Sey, Ben Vince and, yes, Klein. And the guest spots here are a testament to her curatorial skills and an expansion of her cross-disciplinary approach to her two primary crafts: music and dance. Strings are juxtaposed with drums and experimental sound design on "Forest Spirit," which features a duet with London-based musician and choreographer Darkmarik. Their soulful croons "You're a villain, you're a hero, baby" register as raw and heartfelt alongside Scout's girlish asides and the haunting electroacoustic production.
There are tender moments on string-oriented tunes like "Midnight," a downcast acoustic guitar collaboration with Bristol's Mun Sing. In a volte-face, Scout takes a chopped-and-screwed course on "Passage Reversal Fortune"'s doctored choral voices, which are cut, spliced and layered to dramatic effect, and bolstered by additional words from London musician NWAKKE. The collaboration draws to mind both the warped and romantic sonic energy of Torn Hawk's "video-mulch" projects and the soft intensity of Tirzah and Mica Levi's interstellar 2023 album trip9love...???. The results are thrilling, like reaching a temporary state of nirvana, and then waking up in a cold sweat.
Ambient tracks like "Lead Us"' or "Anon's Song" are wonderful interludes, forming a medley of violas, field recordings and rough and ready electronics, between the larger ideas. These elements are layered in to evoke visions of olden times and warm summer days frolicking in countryside fields. Or, in a parallel universe on "Intro," returning home from a night out, wide-eyed, hurtling in a black cab across the Thames.
Through her balanced focus on both words and intricate, atmospheric textures, Scout creates a pastoral soundscape of youth, lost days and tender feelings on Pattern Damage. It's the equilibrium she strikes between order and chaos that leaves you wanting more, or at least coming back around to the beginning of the record again. After years of collaborations and fitful starts, Pattern Damage is the kind of complete, daring record that makes careers.
Tracklist01. Intro
02. Forest Spirit feat. Darkmarik
03. Midnight feat. Mun Sing
04. Interlude
05. Chances
06. Desert feat. Marina Zispin
07. Lead Us
08. When My Heart Is Lonely (Monks Orchard)
09. Passage // Reversal // Fortune feat NWAKKE
10. Almost Nothing feat. Darkmarik
11. I Don't Sleep
12. Anon's Song