She Is So Blonde She Is So Beautiful She Is So Beautiful / She Is So Blonde CD

Way up in college town of Madison, Wisconsin resides a neat little indie label called Science of Sound. The collective could be compared to K Records or Marriage Records or something. Originally, SOS was formed by Terrin and Ricky Riemer so that they could release their own music, but it's branched out to become a "real" indie label. Very quaint and very worthwhile. You can check out some samples on the MySpace page. Anyway, the artist that stands out most for me is this twee folk-pop singer named Elliott Kozel, although he goes by the length moniker of She Is So Beutiful/She Is So Blonde when recording. The self-titled bedroom recording comes with the usual story: it took a long time to create and produce (four years for Kozel), it features a formidable stylistic range, and the album was by no means the only project the artist was working on during the creative process (Kozel is in the "spastic-pop trio Sleeping in the Aviary, which released its debut LP in February this year, and spent several months touring). That being said, the music is wonderful and certainly not by-the-book (if you could call any home produced pop album such!) There's a crispness to all the songs, an unusually high quality of production and crispness to the instruments and vocals. Though there's certainly a looseness to the style ... a sluggish folksy tendency shines through many songs, a more energetic and hopeful one in others ... Truly one of my favorite albums of this variety, certainly one of my top for the year, although there may be no sophomore effort ... Sleeping In the Aviary seems to consuming the bulk of Kozel's time! -Nik Mercer of BiBaBiDi -----------------------------------------------------------------I've often wondered how important time and place are in the enjoyment and appreciation of music. If I'd first heard Joy Division while lying in the sun on holiday on a hot Saturday morning rather than late at night on a tinny transistor radio followed by the dulcet tones of John Peel eulogising them would they still mean so much to me or would I have dismissed them as miserabilist doom mongerers and loaded my walkman with Duran Durans latest album with renewed relish (it's torture even to merely speculate!)? Well this week I tested this theory and listened to the forthcoming album by the exotically monickered She is so Beautiful/She is So Blonde, the solo project of Elliott Kozel guitarist of Sleeping in the Aviary (first featured on the Devil's blog back in May 07, click here to read more.

), whilst slowly sipping a Caramel Machiatto in the Starbucks in Bold Street, Liverpool. Yes I am fully aware that Starbucks are evil and my soul has been corrupted just by spending time in there but there is no coffee in the world that can match a Starbucks Caramel Macchiatto and how can the Devil's soul get any more corrupt?!!.

So anyway back to SISBSISB's self-titled album, which has been over four years in the making, and my theory on the relevance of time and place in the appreciation of music. After about half an hour spent listening to the usual Starbucks mix of plastic soul and faux authentic and self confessed deep and meaningful singer songwriters I slipped on my headphones and was immediately transported to a world where music is produced for its artistic merit rather than to adorn the walls whilst uninterested people sip their slightly bitter tasting beverages in plastic cups.

SISBSISB's album has a shambling, messy, laid back folk vibe (maaaannn!! I'm beginning to turn into a parody of myself, is this normal?) with a slightly sinister undertow, kinda like a crystal clear pond full of piranhas. One track ('Biography') is accompanied by the sounds of a female who could either be in the midst of a particularly great orgasm or being tortured by a sadistic serial killer (not being able to tell the difference possibly accounts for my lack of success with the female of the species (that and the fact that I'm happily married!!)).

Elliott ha