Trailer Trash Tracys’ Ester kicked off 2012 with style, wading in with one of the best debut albums we’ve heard in years. It’s torn bare blend of garage band guitars with machine beats shouldn’t really work, but it does, and it sounds great.
Intro opener, Rolling – Kiss the Universe starts Ester with Brian Eno inspired electro funk noise. It leads brilliantly into track of the album, You Wish You Were Red, which epitomised everything that’s good about Trailer Trash Tracys. Lush vocals overlays a stripped back, heavy bass with catchy drum machine backing and shimmering guitar riffs. The music video is cool as f*$# too. Check it out below.
Dies in 55 pays homage to Nico and The Velvet Underground, but with one of the most modern interpretations of garage band class you could hope for.
Engelhartdt’s Arizona has a brilliant hyper speed arpeggio style of guitar playing, which is pretty epic, sounding similar to the the one that we first saw Anna Calvi do on her cover of Leonard Coen’s Joan of Arc. As with all tracks on Ester, it’s as cool as sea ice with hooked drum machine beats, powered up bass notes and stunning vocals.
A slower arpeggio dominates Los Angered giving it a submerged feel, with beautiful vocals and a spinning end, while Starlatine has got a lot to thank Brian Eno for, mixing it with a French singing style that’s hard to compare.
Reiterating the love of The Velvet Underground, the seventh track on Ester is Candy Girl. It’s slow, bluesy and melancholic, dipping down the lowest from the freak-out start. Strangling Good Guys is a bit more upbeat, but there’s only so much sunshine you can put on a track with that title. The elongating, pitch bending vocals are the key to the track’s strength, with them changing in the latter third to switch things up a little.
Black Circle is dark, with twang back funk bass notes. It’s not as rounded as earlier tracks though making it a little difficult to appreciate in the same way. However, Turkish Heights returns to the foundations of the album, bringing it all back with a forlorn, sinking end.
Ester is a masterpiece of deep treasure and modern beats. When we first heard the album we decided that if this was what 2012 was going to sound like then it was going to be an amazing year, but in all fairness few albums came close to what Trailer Trash Tracys produced with their debut.
Trailer Trash Tracys, Ester album review: 4.5/5
