Whatever you do, do not watch the video first. This is an utterly esoteric album and one which will take enough of your energy to comprehend as it is. The visuals will only cause additional confusion.
Delicate Steve is a one-man musical eccentric, capable of whipping up evocative and sometimes baffling tracks by music alone. Steve Marion has established a significant reputation as a songwriter and musician working with people such as Sondre Lerche, opening for Tame Impala and being lauded by the likes of David Byrne. All of which puts his desire to put out a solo record in context. This is Steve is intended as an introduction to the man himself. What we are presented with is ten short tracks as diverse as the subject matter of the titles (‘Swimming’, ‘Animals’) and no more understanding of the man other than that he is incredibly versatile.
There is something almost conversational about the music on this album. On a number of tracks I swear I heard singing only to realise it was actually the guitar speaking, an experience so disorientating that it felt like having my head rearranged. On ‘Winners’ one of the electric guitars plays the vocal line. It’s languageless, a bit like being spoken to by a Jim Henson puppet or Sweep from the Sooty Show. I spend the entire song trying to translate the music into words because the rhythm of language is so there. It is as if this is the only way Steve Marion can communicate. The guitar is his voice.
Each song appears to be a vignette, a clip that tries to sonically capture a theme, a kind of extended onomatopoeia. For instance, ‘Cartoon Rock’, is a humorous take on every cliché of guitar rock. Steve copies famous riffs in a curious form of sampling in which he plays all the bits, including what seems to be Steppenwolf’s ‘Born to be Wild’. By and large, the music captures driving around with your windows down in the summertime, all the easier to do in the vast expanses of sunny USA.
‘Tomorrow’ is the longest track at four minutes and two seconds, all the others being significantly under three and a half minutes. It opens with a piano and hi-hat. The guitar croons in the moonlight with the top button of its shirt open. ‘Driving’ is probably the most beautiful. There is plenty of piano on this track and the drive is decided low key, as far from Steppenwolf as you are going to get. It is night and we crawl along listening to the insects buzz and creak.
The concluding track is ‘This is Steve’. If this is confessional, it is hidden. The man behind the music remains just as enigmatic as at the beginning of the album.
So, tell me again, who is Steve?
This is Steve will be released on 27th January 2017 through Anti Records.
