USR #5: One of my favorite qualities in music is when it defies easy description or classification, and when you try to compare it to something, you draw a complete blank...which happened the first time I heard The Staton Embassy. That was many years ago and all I'd heard at that point was an EP she made about this shitty place where we both used to work. A little over a year ago she gave me some more and I knew immediately that I had to release this stuff, it's so good and so strange, yet still accessible, plus a good sense humor never hurts. It took a while to happen, but in that time she un-earthed close to 20 more minutes of material, more than worth the wait...
Through a smattering of styles and instrumentation, it all seems to have a traditional (not folk) feel, not to mention her wonderful approach to the voice as an instrument, often experimenting with vocal sounds, sometimes playful, and sometimes more serious...you can never tell what the next track will bring. Throw in a bizarre sense of humor with social satire among several other styles and I guess that if I HAD to compare this to another band, not that they sound the same, but just have the same kind feel or approach, it would have to be the Residents. Plus being home-recorded, sometimes lo-fi, all DIY, I've also gotta say it has a similar feel to many bands on the Messthetics comps., only done by one Southeastern US lady between 1999-2007. Things can get weird in the South...
Limited to 50 cassettes w/ download code:
and for anyone who was around NC at the beginning of the 2000's and was into post-punk...STATON played keyboards in Piedmont Charisma:
http://wilfullyobscure.blogspot.com/2010/05/singles-going-single-124-piedmont.html
