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Mirah Yom Tov Zeitlyn is a singer-songwriter from Olympia (Washington)
who sang on the Microphones'
albums Don't Wake Me Up and Window.
Mirah's debut solo album, the acoustic and intimate
You Think It's Like This but Really It's Like This (K, 2000),
introduced an intriguing hybrid of Liz Phair's sexy postures, Juliana Hatfield's
introverted confessions and
Lisa Germano's
girlish anxiety. The poppy Sweepstakes Prize, the
somber Archipelago and the jazzy Words Cannot Describe
showed the caliber of her talent.
Advisory Committee (K, 2002) was a better produced and arranged
album that lacked the convincing passion of the debut but improved
the musical side. Mirah's voice swims through the
Bjork-ian
bursts of bombastic drumming and keyboards, hard-rock guitar and
tragic strings of Cold Cold Water.
Recommendation juxtaposes a catchy refrain, a syncopated drum-machine
and a driving organ pattern.
She travels back in time to deliver the
accordion and violin-driven vaudeville skit of Light the Match.
However there is a simpler logic at work in most of the songs.
The fragile singalong After You Left employs little more than the echo
and an electronic drone.
Her humble colloquial tone pens the sweet melody of
Make It Hot against a spare backdrop of acoustic guitar
and tinkling keyboards, and whispers the detached speech of
Body Below against the rumbling of a distorted guitar,
and declamates the tragic story of
Special Death with acoustic guitar, ghostly theramin-like noises
and eerie echoes.
Monument turns to the quiet, stately tone of
Leonard Cohen.
The mini-album Songs from the Black Mountain (K, 2003) is an experiment
in sound collage composed with the collaboration of Ginger Brooks Takahashi.
Unfortunately, C'mon Miracle (K, 2004) is mostly tedious and
unimaginative. The psychedelic workout We're Both So Sorry is
the one notable exception.
The Light, Nobody Has to Stay and Look Up try to
repeat the scoop of Cold Cold Water, but the results are mixed
at best.
The music would be even duller if it weren't for the work of producer
Phil Elvrum.
To All We Stretch The Open Arm (Yo Yo, 2004), credited to
Mirah & the Black Cat Orchestra, is a set of old protest songs, from Brecht
to Dylan.
Joyride Mixes (K Records, 2006) is a remix album.
Share This Place (K, 2007) is a collaboration with
Spectratone International, i.e. the Black Cat Orchestra in disguise,
originally commissioned as a soundtrack to an animated movie.
The Old Days Feeling (2008) collects leftovers and rarities.
(A)spera (K, 2009) continued to refine the arrangements and to
look for a hit single (the orchestral ballad Generosity being
the new candidate).
However, it was the dreamy lullaby
The World Is Falling Apart (with minimal accompaniment of guitar and
strings) and
The River (longer but even more uneventful)
that reaffirmed her talent as a songwriter.
She exceled at fragile and gentle atmospheres, when it feels like her voice is
tiptoeing into the tune for fear of disturbing it while in fact it is creating
it out of almost nothing (musically speaking).
It sounds like she is about to faint in Education
and that she is about to fly away on a cloud in While We Have The Sun,
and that she is slightly intoxicated in the bluesy Bones And Skin.
The instruments bestow a neoclassical elegance on songs such as the lute-driven
Shells that well complements her paradisiac aloofness.
And she also ventures into uncharted territory, namely the
noir, propulsive and exotic Country Of The Future,
demonstrating a disturbing alter-ego, and the surreal
The Forest, that manages to blend
hard-rock guitar riff, pow-wow drumming, pirate choir and
Ennio Morricone-esque horn fanfare.
These two "odd" tunes established a new standard for her music.
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(Translation by/ Tradotto da Carlo Maramotti)
Mirah Yom Tov Zeitlyn e' una cantautrice di Olympia (Washington)
che partecipo' agli album dei Microphones Don't Wake Me Up e Window.
Il suo debutto solista, l'acustico e intimo You Think It's Like This but Really
It's Like This (K, 2000), introduce un intrigante ibrido di posture sexy alla
Liz Phair, di confessioni introverse in stile Juliana Hatfield e di ansie femminili
di Lisa Germano. La scanzonata Sweepstakes Prize, la triste
Archipelago e la jazzata Words Cannot Describe
mostrano il calibro del suo talento.
Advisory Committee (K, 2002) e' un album prodotto e arrangiato
molto meglio, che manca della passione convincente del debutto
ma accentua gli aspetti musicali. La voce di Mirah "nuota" tra
il country-pop, influenzato da Morricone, di Cold Cold Water e
gli ottimi arrangiamenti Mt St Helens, Light the Match,
Special Death, Make It Hot.
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