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reviews
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When listening to Elizabeth Sharp's one-woman band, Ill Ease, its hard not to thing of her photographs, which are characterized by super-saturated color, rough edges, and a seemingly slapdash yet cleverly calculated collage sensibility. Her body of work so far—from her drumming in New Radiant Storm King to her fourth Ill Ease outing to her photos, some of which can be found in the library at New York's MOMA—coms straight from her dreams into your reality. Sharp's wry humor shines like sunny rays. A drunk, dizzy sense of play and mischief permeates the album, as on 'Malfunction Junction' where "self-destructing all day and night" sounds like the wisest thing to do. Her video for the cheery, catchy -Jersey-O-Matic'—surely her best pop song yet— is full of pot pipes and motel beds, continuing her obsession with the decaying Jersey boardwalk funplexes and a bygone era of hedonism, promise, and glory. On the hilarious 'The Skank', she goes back in time to age 18, when throwing up in the sink and watching other people make out was the rule of the day. Her rythms remain top-notch—her drumming forms the backbone of The Exorcist's body of airy keyboards and sharp, crunchy riffs. The music is more interesting than ever—soulful,jazzy, funky, entirely her own—and her signature jagged rhythms are entrancing, making you feel slightly woozy. Her voice, sometimes high, othertimes husky, but almost always whispered low in the mix of a bit deadpan, conveys melodies of girl groups and sex kittens gone haywire. Maybe once, just once, she should crank up the vocals, or even shout. The beautiful backup vocals on 'Junkie Go Home' hint at unbrandished doo-wop weaponry in her ever-expanding arsenal. The Exorcist will disengage even the most jaded listener from her inhibitions, forcing her to sit back and enjoy Sharp's hell-raising ride.
Throughout the 90's, Sharp established herself in the male-dominated realm of indie-rock as drummer of New Radiant Storm King and bassist for Skinner Pilot. Now, she employs her captivatingly unconventional style in her solo project, Ill Ease. The Exorcist is Sharps's fourth
full-length and it is pretty damn good. She remains true to her
perplexing aesthetic, which is usually a repetitive groove that
changes gradually as she layers on keyboards, singing, guitar, noise,
etc. The result is a catchy hook that often seems quite mellow and
agreeable at first, but then gets pretty sick, twisted, and murky.
You're never quite sure of what exactly she's singing about -- but
it won't bother you. I like to fill in the details using my imagination,
as if I were looking at a snapshot. As I listen, I try to envision
the circumstances that would explain the vague yet complex sentiments
you get from the music. By the end, you won't be sure what combination
of emotions you are experiencing from The Exorcist -- other
than a steadfast compulsion to play it again.
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Elizabeth Sharp has created an album in which she composed the songs and played all the instruments. The result is a sparse, irony-laden collection of "everything sucks"-type songs within The Exorcist. Heavy on the bass and drums, and light on guitar, the vocals are mixed in quietly, to blend and become another instrument. The first track, "Jersey-O-Matic," is vaguely reminiscent of the Breeders, with driving, melodic bass lines, and guitar lines that match them. It even has a catchy chorus of vocatives. It was probably Sharp's days as a drummer, (she says the drum is her favorite instrument) that contribute to the rhythm-driven songs on this album, which are complex, and definitely not your standard 4/4 rock songs. But it all works. You know that it was supposed to be like that; all the rhythmic jumblings seem calculated and intentional. It's quirks like this that make the album so interesting. The songs on The Exorcist are the opposite of catchy, yet they have a way of staying with you. They are a concise, journalistic, yet quirky approach to emotions. And though she's far from being a virtuoso singer, Sharp's singing elicits the detached yet heartfelt, cut-to-the-bone lyrics in just the perfect, casual manner. They work on a textural level to add another layer of sound, rather than to communicate an actual message. This presents an overall feeling and mood to the vignettes she is describing. Be sure to stay around to listen
to the "hidden" tracks.
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The Exorcist does the tighten up on Ill Ease's shtick. Whether or not it's at the expectance of her new and larger label, Too Pure, IE maestro Elizabeth Sharp has leashed Live at the Holiday Sin's meandering muse and created her strongest set yet. That doesn't mean she's gone all pop. The same chattering and stilted percussion winds through Exorcist, but it's matched to a series of robust, tensile guitar riffs straight from a '90s indie clip-art book, and a more directly randy lyrical bent. Opener "Jersey-O-Matic" channels the Breeders' "Last Splash" through a chintzy keyboard Cuisinart and a bunch of beguiling "ba-ba-ba"s from Sharp; it will likely surface as the soundtrack to some ridiculously hip fashion show. The tracks for "Winter in Hell" and "The Skank" are more laconic, with loopy basslines trudging along underneath simplistic drum triggers. But Sharp mumbles naughty nothings in our ear like a distracted girlfriend trying to incite jealousy. She sleeps with the boss in "Hell"; "Skank" recounts the details of an after-hours debauchery fest whose lights never reach the street. "18 to party/21 to drink...Crusty old men/And college girls on crank." There's a bit of Peaches in Sharp's delivery and subject matter -- there's a similar co-opting of the modern hip-hop obsession with recreational substances and sex inside the urban landscape. "Walking Catastrophe" is potty-mouthed and codependent as clanging guitars steadily overtake its deconstructed rhythmic pluck, while "You Know You Make Me Want to Hate You" manufactures a trashy streetwalking groove. It's Danielson Famile turned out by Jon Spencer. The guitar/drum machine dynamic continues throughout Exorcist, supported occasionally by tinny keys or some of the found noise coloring Ill Ease's previous output, and Sharp's wavering near-whisper remains a curiously addicting amalgam of the sly and the personal. Exorcist is a big-city album
for sure. It's arch and haughty enough for the exclusive loft parties,
but its homemade feel comforts the lonely would-be sex symbols stuck
in narrow uptown efficiencies.
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All in all, [The Exorcist]
is quite an impressive album. The Exorcist may not make your TV
glow or abduct your babies, but it can sure probe your stereo. Rock
on.
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Addictive, rhythm-heavy compositions
infused with slippery vocals and weaving guitars; when embellished
with her outburts of 'yea' and 'uh-huh,' Sharp's songs achieve maximum
bump and grind
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8 out of a perfect 10! A dark blend
of low-fi, fuzzed out guitars, thrashy hip-hop style drums and Sharp's
pleasantly off-kilter vocals. Kindred spirits: Royal Trux, My Bloody
Valentine, Sonic Youth.
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Low fidelity and low self-esteem have
always gone hand in shaky hand. But Elizabeth Sharp (a.k.a. ill
ease) makes the combination arresting again.... She wallows in rhythm
as well as rejection, dropping playroom instrumentation on deep,
circular grooves like a moldy peach playing patty-cake with can.
Bad times never seemed so good.
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Sharp has created an unnerving, vaguely
claustrophobic signature sound, jumbling together obsessively circular
melodies, weirdly arresting dynamics, id-ful lyrical jottings and
a haunted, warbling voice similar to the young Moe Tucker's. But
there's also a giddy sense of fun, thanks to the strutting, sometimes
woozy rhythms. The results sound like a cross between a long, dark
night of the soul and a drunken slumber party.
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Filled with sly beats and overdubbed
vocals, Ill Ease makes slick rock music that sexily slip and trips
on itself—like a drunk friend whose word-slurring only enhances
her magnetic appeal. As Ill Ease flirts wth the artistic aspects
of rock music, creating soundscapes that suggest there's more to
Sharp's songs than just what she's playing or saying, the end result
is straight-ahead songs that feel simultaneously experimental and
real.... Musically catchy and lyrically intriguing, layered enough
to delight and confound, and abundantly expressive of the seductive
ill ease of the woman behind the band.
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Caustic, claustrophobic and often
chaotic, Ill Ease sounds like a lounge singer singer covering early
PJ Harvey material on crack.... It's not difficult to see why Sharp
chose Ill Ease as an umbrella title for her material - that's exactly
what you feel listening to her dark, warped and original journeys.
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Velvet Underground comparisons get
tossed about like so much packaging filler these days, which is
unfortunate, because most of the comparisons are unwarranted. Just
because some band has a hypnotic back beat and a mellow stretch
of chugging guitars doesn't mean they've captured what worked so
well for Lou Reed and Co. The Velvets were creating new ways of
expressing internal and external realities through music and, as
a result of the times and the talents involved, something fresh,
exciting and a bit dangerous resulted. Elizabeth Sharp, former drummer/singer
of New Radiant Storm King, has spent a great deal of time and energy
fashioning a brand of music that exists true to her inner and outer
worlds, and apart from what passes as the contemporary sound of
the underground.... Ill Ease
somehow captures the seething sexual undercurrent of a Velvet's
record.
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