Kyle Dean Reinford
Monica Martin and Jeremy Larson (Violents)
PHOX fans prepared to lose something special in October of 2016, when the band announced its pending hiatus. The group’s whimsical songcraft — which featured frontwoman Monica Martin’s extraordinary vocals — represented a high peak in the nebulous genre known as “indie” music.
On Awake and Pretty Much Sober, the latest release from multi-instrumentalist Jeremy Larson (producing as Violents), Martin returns in a new context. Larson has collaborated with vocalists on earlier EPs, and takes on full song and lyric writing duties in his work as Violents.
Much of Awake and Pretty Much Sober (available from Partisan Records and Spotify, plus a recent NPR Tiny Desk concert) is lush, downtempo electro-pop in the vein of Phantogram or Young Summer. The album opens with its powerful eponymous track and previews what will follow: dry drum backbeats, occasional orchestral strings and, through it all, a thick wash of synth.
The collaboration shines on more driving songs, especially “Line Lie” and “Second Class.” For those who knew PHOX, it can be odd hearing Martin sing Violents’ more straightforward, poppy vocal parts, but her voice best serves these upbeat tunes.
Unfortunately, Violents’ and Martin’s strengths are often in opposition.
Violents is a composer and producer first, and it shows in the vocal parts for Awake and Pretty Much Sober. Martin’s voice is treated like an instrument — tune adjusted, squared off, segmented into glassy melodies — and this production often subtracts from her singing. Though electronic groups like Purity Ring and Crystal Castles have fashioned entire aesthetics from their unique vocal modulations, Violents’ extensive use of it here feels like it takes something away.
Despite this, Awake and Pretty Much Sober is hooky and well-crafted — the kind of mood music that improves a summer sunlit coffee shop or chill day at home.
Monica Martin will appear at the Crescendo Espresso Bar’s Songwriter Series on June 9.
