The Portland Phoenix's Sam Pfeifle on "Creature"
While much of Clara Berry’s new EP, Creature, is alluring and captivating, the first 45 seconds of her “Siren” might be the best 45 seconds recorded this year. Matt Ianotti, a UMass-Lowell-trained recording engineer, did a wonderful job of capturing Berry’s vocals, which are sultry and powerful, yes, but also absolutely exquisitely crisply delivered. Her genius is in her glottal stops, her aspirated Ts, her rumbling growl. Some mastering jobs might round off the edges, but here they are punctuation marks that provide important information, indeed.
“Just because you’re feeling low, and I am here/Does not mean I want to be/Your picture-perfect, damsel dear/Who licks your wounds,” and it gets better, Berry mixing Norah Jones and Jolie Holland and getting a playful lilt into a throaty husk, accompanying herself on piano and a captivating hum, and finishing the opening salvo in a piercing falsetto. What it builds to from there — strings, a Catwoman-vamp, Bougainvillea-tinged saxophone — is very nice. But I want to put that first 45 seconds in my pocket and be able to bring it out and peek at it every 15 seconds.
It doesn’t come as a surprise, either. The Sarah Vaughan-like scat that opens “Corner Child” and the disc is a grab-you-by-the-throat introduction and Berry never lets you forget that she can flat-out sing. She’s the first singer in a long time about whom I’ve felt I absolutely had to see her live after hearing her recorded work. I’m completely at her command.
But her band helps. Jesse Robichaud’s drums are subtle and know when to stay out of the way. On viola and cello, Theresa Cleary and Michael Coelho build tension and mood expertly. Berry is surrounded by a halo of gauzy muslin. Her training wasn’t bad, either, coming from Cerberus Shoal’s and Fire on Fire’s Tom Kovacevic.
As a closer, the beginning to “Suzanne’s Lament” is a “Siren” reprise, but Berry sings over Robichaud’s upright bass instead and this time the protagonist is more plaintive: “You feed him tea and oranges/Pray he never finds the door,” and while “He thinks that you’re half-crazy/And by that he is intrigued,” in the end “You’re just a girl that he is loving/Desperately.” That “he is loving” construction, with emphasis on the tenuous state of affairs, is the kind of small touch that separates this EP from standard singer-songwriter fare.
Sam Pfeifle


Creature

as you're pressing every ounce of me 
into the curb into the street I pray 
that your strength lies in your body weight 
and you will never live to see me fade 

a crack in the alignment 
of our fragile dancing frames 
allowed for something not quite now 
to seep into our brains 

conjuring a creature far more strange 
than our minds alone could ever once create 
I'm just a girl, who'd like for you to stay 
I'm just a girl, who feels you coursing through my veins 

perhaps I should accept the role 
of nothing when they find they're full 
and see no purpose staying any longer 

perhaps the cards are stacked as such 
my hopes will never quite be touched 
by those who think I am for which they hunger 

I'm just the girl, who'd like for them to stay 
I'm just the girl, with the needle to my veins 

but of course the spoken words weren't meant 
on something else your heart is bent 
I see 

but loneliness inspired me 
to peer inside however dangerously

03 Every Ounce

just because you're feeling low and I am here 
does not mean I 
want to be your picture perfect damsel, dear 
who licks your wounds and 
asks you of your battle scars for how could I know 
how they are incurred 
I'm just a maiden, sadly waitin' for your 
heart to slowly turn 

but I've seen one too many 
warriors like you 
men who wait for paint by numbers 
pictures to themselves imbue 

I come from the sea 
but your dame I'll not be 
for I am, the wounds of which you'll speak 
heya 

and she may wait patiently 
but mystery does intrigue 
and singing my song above the tide you come 

dawning your red jacket 
indicating status of a captain 
master of the seas but stranger 
to my creature kind 

maiden of brine 
mistress of sea weed 

aimless men 
come to my bed 
to lie 

and if escape 
you try to make 
beware that I come from the sea

02 Siren

The Portland Phoenix's Sam Pfeifle on "Creature"


While much of Clara Berry’s new EP, Creature, is alluring and captivating, the first 45 seconds of her “Siren” might be the best 45 seconds recorded this year. Matt Ianotti, a UMass-Lowell-trained recording engineer, did a wonderful job of capturing Berry’s vocals, which are sultry and powerful, yes, but also absolutely exquisitely crisply delivered. Her genius is in her glottal stops, her aspirated Ts, her rumbling growl. Some mastering jobs might round off the edges, but here they are punctuation marks that provide important information, indeed.
“Just because you’re feeling low, and I am here/Does not mean I want to be/Your picture-perfect, damsel dear/Who licks your wounds,” and it gets better, Berry mixing Norah Jones and Jolie Holland and getting a playful lilt into a throaty husk, accompanying herself on piano and a captivating hum, and finishing the opening salvo in a piercing falsetto. What it builds to from there — strings, a Catwoman-vamp, Bougainvillea-tinged saxophone — is very nice. But I want to put that first 45 seconds in my pocket and be able to bring it out and peek at it every 15 seconds.
It doesn’t come as a surprise, either. The Sarah Vaughan-like scat that opens “Corner Child” and the disc is a grab-you-by-the-throat introduction and Berry never lets you forget that she can flat-out sing. She’s the first singer in a long time about whom I’ve felt I absolutely had to see her live after hearing her recorded work. I’m completely at her command.
But her band helps. Jesse Robichaud’s drums are subtle and know when to stay out of the way. On viola and cello, Theresa Cleary and Michael Coelho build tension and mood expertly. Berry is surrounded by a halo of gauzy muslin. Her training wasn’t bad, either, coming from Cerberus Shoal’s and Fire on Fire’s Tom Kovacevic.
As a closer, the beginning to “Suzanne’s Lament” is a “Siren” reprise, but Berry sings over Robichaud’s upright bass instead and this time the protagonist is more plaintive: “You feed him tea and oranges/Pray he never finds the door,” and while “He thinks that you’re half-crazy/And by that he is intrigued,” in the end “You’re just a girl that he is loving/Desperately.” That “he is loving” construction, with emphasis on the tenuous state of affairs, is the kind of small touch that separates this EP from standard singer-songwriter fare.

Sam Pfeifle 

05 Suzanne's Lament

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKeT02nGQdQ

off the upcoming "Creature" EP.  Release show @ The Northstar Cafe in Portland on June 24th at 8PM and at the Egg Roll Cafe in Lowell on June 25 at 7:30 PM