SOUNDTRACK: OVERCOATS-Young (2017).
Overcoats is the project of two women: Hana Elion (left on the album cover) and JJ Mitchell. The focus of their music is, without question, their dynamic voices. They harmonize beautifully with each other. Often times you can’t tell who is singing what. And yet, they also have lovely voices individually.
The music on this record is very minimal. Some songs are based solely around a low keyboard note and simple percussion.
What’s most interesting about the duo is that their music veers between quiet, introspective songs and some serious dance music. Their sound is at times uncomfortably poppy for me. And yet after seeing them on a Tiny Desk Concert I have embraced them and let my pop hair down.
The disc opens with the short (less than 2 minute) “Father” which features one vocal and a low drone underneath. For the second verse, their voices are multiplied and echoed. It’s beautiful and a little unsettling.
But it’s “Smaller Than My Mother” in which the more dancey aspects first show up. Over a thumping bass, their voices are manipulated in a strange way to create a staccato melody. Musically the song is again, a little unsettling, but after a verse or two, some full-on synths come in to take over the manipulated voices as the prime melody and the two main vocals power through in close, delightful harmony. The song isn’t exactly catchy, but it is quite entrancing.
“23” begins quietly, with just one vocal line. For the second verse, the harmonies kick in and the song soars. But again, the music behind them is pretty minimal–droney synths a simple beat and sprinkling of keyboard notes.
“Leave the Light On” takes what they’ve done to a new level of complexity. It showcases not only their voices (close and distant harmonies) but also their danciest sensibilities. Their voices are looped and modulated, but they also sing quite rhythmically. The song also has more music than the others, with some loud synthy patterns and a real dance feel.
“Hold Me Close” is a powerful pretty ballad. The melody is followed on a piano with these buzzy electronic sounds that propel the song forward. But the music mostly drifts away because it’s all about their voices.
The back half of the album is a lot more mellow. “The Fog” manipulates their voices more as a woozy, foggy synth plays throughout the song while “Walk On” is just a pretty, understated song. “Little Memory” is all about their harmonies as is “Siren” although with a bit more oomph.
“Nighttime Memory” seems like it will continue in that quieter vein, but the chorus comes in with a kind of sinister droning keyboard and the two singers singing a tight harmony of “When the darkness comes, wheh wheh when…”
“Mother” bookends the disc. The way the two hum in harmony is really warm and inviting, a comforting end to this sometimes unsettling but always beautiful disc.
[READ: March, 21, 2016] “The Elephant”
At the time, I had been reading a number of stories set in the Middle East and India that seemed to be full of futility. It is quite dispiriting,
This story begins at Mr Ganesh Pai’s store. Mrs. Engineer had come in person to shop there. She bought an expensive TV table and said she would pay the balance of the item once it was delivered safely. Mr Pai notes, “she’s a stingy old cunt.” This makes his assistant laugh, but there is no laughing in this store. Rather, he must tell Chenayya that it is his delivery to make.
Chenayya is a coolie–a delivery boy–for this mega store. The store is doing well, there are many deliveries a day. But the deliverers get paid poorly and have to give a portion of their to Pai. Chenayya begins his delivery on the bicycle. Up the big hill. He works hard, even making sure the table doesn’t wobble (he carried a big saw with him) but she gives him only 3 rupees as a tip. He begs for six but she tells him to get away.
Many of the other delivery men spend their money on alcohol, but not Chenayya. He knows the cost isn’t worth t. He does buy a lottery ticket, though. He often thinks about stealing the money on a delivery and taking off–maybe someday. (more…)
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I saw Overcoats twice back in 2018 and I was really quite taken with their music and their friendship.
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