L.A.'s reigning loop-wizard Cameron Mesirow doesn't need much help making long-form, trance-inducing electronica as Glasser. But that didn't stop the Norwegian producer Lindstrom from unpacking the raw material of her song "Mirrorage" and stretching it out to more than seven languid minutes of Balian bells, Roger Troutman vocoder and sample snippets that lock like watch gears. It's a fine example of a producer fully understanding and rearranging the mechanics of an already great track, and by adding little extra accomplishes so much more for it.
You can catch Glasser at that little clandestine house show in the desert in April, but, coincidentally, Lindstrom will also make his first L.A. appearance at Vanguard on Feb. 11. He's unafraid of the 30-minute song, so bring coffee along with whatever other sundry dance provisions you're taking.
-- August Brown
Glasser photo by Aliya Naumoffz, Lindstrom photo by Kim Hiorthoy
For having released a debut album that could ostensibly be played on loop into infinity, Glasser sure is a fan of the short set. At Cameron Mesirow's big victory-lap show Wednesday at the Troubadour following the release of "Ring," she recalibrated her refracted, electro-tribal compositions into a brief (45 minutes, give or take) clip of standalone singles that underscored two of her best traits -- her virtuoso attention to sonical detail and that voice.
Mesirow's plowed through a number of different band setups since her first spate of singles in 2009, ranging from a two-piece with an iPod to a double-digit cast of local indie heros from Foreign Born, Darker My Love and others. Her current ensemble is a lean, polymath electronic four-piece with an intriguing MIDI-guitar player who combines the live physicality of a Stratocaster while coaxing weird bell sounds, loops and ambient pricks from his instrument -- the trilling arpeggios of "Treasury of We" were especially gobsmacking to watch.
OK, so we're late to the party on posting the new single from the local experimental pop singer-producer Glasser. But you don't need a timely reason to spend three and a half minutes with the loopy marimbas, lovesick Bollywood strings and the gob-smacking voice of Cameron Mesirow on "Home."
"Ring," her full-length for True Panther co-produced with Foreign Born's Ariel Rechtshaid, is out Sept. 28 and might be one of the marquee local releases of this year. For good measure, take a look at the organ contraption she built with artist Tauba Auerbach under the aegis Auerglass and ask whether L.A. doesn't have its own Björk on its hands.
-- August Brown
Photo by Timothy Murray.
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