First off, yeah I know—super-Salander. But, no, Reader, the young lass pictured above isn’t some dark, edgy, fictional defender of women dreamt up by a Swedish author, she’s Claire Boucher, the dark, edgy, real-life defender of all sounds spookily melodic—AKA, Grimes.
Grimes is yet another mind-blowingly original electronic-based band that hails from Canada—see the theatrical glitch-operatic Born Gold + the similarly eerily catchy Purity Ring—and, though you can definitely draw some comparisons with all of their instrumentation, these bands are all striking out in refreshingly distinct ways, Boucher included. Skirting the line between atmospherically spooky ‘Witch House’ and a strange marriage between retro-soul-pop and glitchy electronics, Grimes’ sound most often grounds itself in sparse, melodic, electronically generated tones with pitter-pattering percussion and delicate vocals to weave subtly addictive soundscapes.
This week’s Song, “Genesis,” provides some pretty solid backing this assessment, but check it out and decide for yourself. If you like it, definitely give a listen to Boucher’s most recent full-length, Visions, released a couple weeks ago and available on vinyl with two extra tracks via their label, Arbutus.
As with all the bands we’ve been featuring these past weeks, they’ll also be playing Austin’s South by Southwest festival in a couple weeks, and we’re psyched to see them for the first time as well as catching Purity Ring again, who puts on a SUPERB show.
Below, a video for Grimes’ rather dancier—but don’t worry, still slightly creepy—non-album track, “Vanessa,” from her 2011 album with d’Eon. Love it? Download it over on los iTunes. It is pretty tight.
