Marla Mase:"Half Life"

Holding up to the True Groove Label's crusade to bring new music to 2014 on a monthly basis, Marla Mase is followis up her "Speak Deluxe" album with "Half Life". Since this is an ep, Mase doesn't waste time. She opens up with a driven punk number that caries the ambiance of Kim Gordon fronted Sonic Youth. The song brings to mind some of the more accessible moments from "Goo", laced with a PCP like hit of the Stooges.

Like her previous album their is no shortage of dynamics in the color spectrum of musical diversity that characterizes True Groove's Global Soul vision statement. The title track embraces elements of funk set against a Sade like simmer, while not forsaking Mase's alt-rock leanings. Her lyrics take a more introspective and personal turn this go around.She muses her idiosyncrasies with a sax backing the beat.

Mental health is tackled in her social dissection in "Things That Scare Me". The quirk in the melodies bring the B-52's to mind. Although this is a club mix is still rides the new wave line between dance and rock the Talking Heads once waltzed over. The distorted guitars keep a rock glaze over the song.

Bill Laswell pops up laying down the bass line to an almost Tom Waits inspired brooding number called "the Heart Beats". The lyrics ponder the universal truths music inspires, that is a familiar concept on True Groove projects. This is followed by the Rolling Stones like shuffle of "Gaping Hole".More lyrically self aware than Jagger's apologies for being a beast of burden, Mase instead questions the gaping hole the masses seek to fill with relationships as much as they do drugs of any flavor.

The reprise of "Drown in Blue" resembles the opener very little, instead taking a more intimate blues approach.Another True Groove alumni Charlie Funk contributes backing vocals to the blues rock of "Bitch in Heat" that finds Mase holding fast to her more subdued vocal approach while the groove winds around her. There is a pretty ripping guitar solo, I assume to be courtesy of Doncker , whose band once again backs Mase for this album.

The ballad "Hold Fast Your Dreams" is inspired by the Louise Driscoll poem of the same name. This goes back to the type of 1920's lounge , but with the air of indie rock to it, not unlike something you might hear in a more cheerful moment of a David Lynch film or even the Velvet Underground's Nico comes to mind.

This is more to the point than "Speak Deluxe" due to the abbreviated nature of the medium she chose to present these songs in, but sometimes less is more and this works for Mase as a more concise portrait of where she is . She continues to carry on True Groove's vision and does it in a very thought provoking manner. If you are in New York on June 12th , make sure to catch her at the Cutting Room and see how these songs translate live.
    

Up From the Underground: Marla Mase -" Speak"

This New York based singer/ songwriter, is more than a siren or a diva, she tackles her songs with more vigor than most female solo artists who tend to forsake rock emotional introspection. It starts with ear catching intensity. It's easy to hear she is a writer as in the second song her need for prose weighs down the melody a little on " Piece of Peace."

There is something about "Open up My Heart"  that reminds me of "Riders on the Storm".  Like Morrison she wanders  from the melody into spoken word. Her voice is too good for her run from the songs in favor of lyrical indulgence.  The fact she also writes erotica plays to her advantage as the lyrics are accented in a very sensual manner to expose their exhibitionist tendencies.

"Lioness " rides the line between Chili Peppers funk and a children's song. I can see it playing as a narrative  to a puppet show. The woes and stories of cell-phones and the memories attached to them are debated on "New Cell Phone" this kind of tongue in cheek humor was often found in the golden decade of alternative music called the 90's , but how it will play to indie rock audiences  remains in question. The spoken word when it is a main stay of the song might remind younger kids of Cake, who they probably think are classic rock.  

There's a very Diamond Dogs era Bowie swagger to opening riff of "Queen of Imperfection"  and stays in a e boogie aided by the bass player, though the melodies fall prey to lyrical over load. Mase redeems her self  quickly with " She Hooked Him Up" that has the Bowie funk of Fame. The unevenness of the song writing becomes more apparent in " Divine Restlessness"  where it seems like the producer would have stepped in and given her some guidance.

Who would have thought she could pull off a convincing dance hall song? She does just that on "Anna Rexia" which shows her lyrical brilliance put to its best use rather than being somewhat cumbersome as they feel on other songs. I begin to notice Debbie Harry inflections on "Kill Love" but her voice doesn't sound as sure of its self as it did on the previous song.

The vocal layers on the more melodic sections of "Blog" do her voice more justice than it gets in other songs. The band is always pretty dead on in their constant shifting of genres. There is an 80's pop feel to the chorus of  "Dance the Tango" and the whole song moves pretty smoothly, Marla stays in a casual sing-song  monotone.

Mase's voice is effective in the slower tempo of "Smithereens" allowing her to stay safely in her breathy register, where the lyrics have more room to flow freely. There's almost an Ani Difranco feel to "Scream" , though there isn't the quirky confidence to her voice that Ani has, her musicians keep the song moving past this fact. I don't think she is convinced of what ever character she is trying to play on "Squirm" and makes it sound like she was just improvising in the studio.  I think she could condense this into a more focused effort but overall, shows a depth of diverse creative juice that could be overflowing once she realizes the most suited glass to pour it into.