Samarah :: Beautiful Chaos :: Minimal Avant-Garde IDM Electronic Music

Minimalism and sonic exploration form the core of Samarah's moving and poetic compositions. While this is her first full-length album, two previous EP's, These Things, released in June 2005, and 2004's What is Beautiful, provided a taste of the aural ingenuity that Samarah brings to her work. But with this album, with the more compelling pace and flow allowed by a full-length offering, Samarah's vision and singular talent become focused and enticingly chaotic at the same time. She manipulates your ears, pulling your mind and soul into a subtle world of digital manipulations and sonic sculpture.

Samarah maintains a control of her individuality through space an lyricism. As her voice enters the musical landscape of the first song "Six for Seven", the lilting tones and sultry delivery create a laid back sexual energy that is maintained throughout the album: "I give in to you / I commit virtue / I admit it's true / That I'm into you." As "Disconnected" builds its tonal layers, with a delicate piano emerging from beneath a sea of disembodied voices and moody pads, the short composition is haunting and beautiful, offering space for the manic presence of "Sleep So Heavy" to take you for a psychedelic journey filled with smoky dreams and sounds emerging from the corners of your mind. While lines like "A tisket, a tasket, now let's hit it / A ricket, a racket, now let's pass it" might seem to offer some stoned insights into the mind of this artist, the meaning is morphed by the music, creating a synesthetic manipulation that is disarming and refreshing.

As you immerse yourself deeper into these seemingly fragile constructions, the scope of Samarah's control becomes increasingly clear. While the rhythmic presence revolves around glitchy noises and effected synths, it's the overriding sense of space and substance that holds the form. "Fall Away" is a perfect demonstration of this concept. The ringing chimes that introduce the song mesh with manically effected samples and distant vocalizations. However, as the instrumentation becomes more focused, the incongruent elements fall into place and coalesce into a fully conceptualized and uniquely realized creation. As the track flows away and the mechanistic noises of "Crush" come into view, the chaotic element is again embraced, feeling like the scrapes of reason were replaced by anarchy. But just as the groove is seemingly falling apart, it is put back together with an exquisite grace.

This pacing, the ebb and flow, of Samarah's hallucinatory musicianship becomes most fully realized in "Dejavous/" The lyrics depect a common experience in otherworldly sensations while the music offers a dreamlike vantage point: "I woke up on the wrong side of the world today / Seems like nothing ever goes my way...I know that I can't even say it / I know that you won't even play it / I can't imagine another day behind your face." While the imagery is at once familiar and utterly incomprehensible, so is the music. It feels like coming home after being away for years: the substance remains but the texture has changed. As bells ring in the distance as the album comes to a close, the painting has yet to reveal its full image. The colors are all there, vibrant and in their places, but the soul is too restless to stand still long enough for your eyes to focus. The closer you look, the more the image dissolves. Maybe in the next album Samarah will conjure up a static image, but I hope not. Her grace lies in her willingness to keep reaching and evolving, mutating and morphing into something on step away from crystal-clear comprehension and one step towards something pure.

Samarah - These Things EP, released on London-based netlabel Electronical, is a rare foray into disjointed, vocal-based glitch. Disconnected percussion and subdued vocals take centre stage, with sparing use of other instrumentation. This increases the impact and significance of pianos and other melodic elements, just as the moments when we can catch phrases, sung through a shroud of digital manipulation and effects.

Each track on These Things is aesthetically consistent, although the whole EP generally feels like a somber miasma of gritty textures and silky vocals. Pale Honey (Slow Honey Mix) is the strongest track, combining all the best elements of the EP, and is a remix of Pale Honey, available on Samarah’s EP What is Beautiful.

Samarah has other releases out on CD, released through CDBaby, and an upcoming full-length CD called Fall Away. It looks like These Things is a rare netlabel treat, but that doesn’t stop me from being excited about the prospect of a full-length release.

Delving into experimental minimalist electronic psychedelia, Samarah shines on her new 12-minute, 4-song EP, These Things. Shuffling, popping electronic percussion and experimental ambient soundscapes crafted from subtle electronics and found sounds form the backdrop for Samarah's reverb-drenched, subdued vocals and whispers. It's a unique sound that oddly contradicts itself, sterile yet organic, sparse yet busy.

The opening "Blame it on the Rain" (not even close to a Milli Vanilli cover, mind you), is a blend of ethereal swells and noise that slowly coagulates to form percussive loops beneath Samarah's sultry vocals, sonically distorting and evolving throughout. "With You" is a bit sparser but far more haunting, simple piano melodies, what appears to be a music box, and clicking, intricate percussion against spacious, distant processed vocals. "One in the Same" relies more heavily on processing than the other tracks here, underlying synths and piano melodies accenting ever-changing loops and chopped up vocals. "Pale Honey (Slow Honey Mix)", on the other hand, is a bit more sonically dense, a lush synth string foundation at it's heart creating a moody ethereal piece.

Likely to appeal mainly to those with more experimental tastes (others may find…say…"One in the Same" more comparable to a skipping CD than traditional music), These Things is a sonically interesting blend of minimalism and sound manipulation. Its sometimes haunting ethereal qualities will also likely prove pleasing to ambient/ethereal listeners. As a whole, it's a fairly strong and original 12-minute outing that's worth a listen.

Just as you sink into the strange electronic soundscapes of "These Things," the new EP from Madison electronica artist Samarah, it's over. Just four songs in 12 minutes, just enough of a taste to make fans of experimental trip-hop hungry for the full-length follow-up, "Fall Away," which is supposed to be coming out later this fall.

Samarah excels at manipulating sounds to create a dense sound that's both disquieting and oddly inviting. The beats click and snap like insects skittering across linoleum, soft piano lines trickle almost inaudibly in the background, and through the sonic miasma Samarah's mesmerizing voice floats in and out. Those who think of electronica as merely hip background music really need to check out "These Things," an art installation for the ears.

For many who were able to catch the last Madison Area Music Awards, a fairly unexpected highlight of the show was local trip-hop/electronica artist Samarah collaborating with the Madison Boy's Choir, creating a haunting, altogether novel soundscape unlike anything else in the show.

Samarah specializes in creating those haunting, novel soundscapes-- combining glitchy beats with minimalistic trip hop vocals and live instrumentation, and her high-profile performance at the MAMAs (as well as a string of well-received shows in Madison and Chicago) has helped build a solid buzz around her as of late.

A Madison, WI resident since 2000, Samarah seems to be cultivating an image of minimalist elegance; she has put out two brief EPs, both with sparse music and sparser packaging. The former fits loosely into the category of "trip-hop", though it's more trip than hop -- aside from Samarah's despairing, echoing voice, What is Beautiful's vibe is nowhere near the more pop-oriented efforts purveyed by the likes of Portishead and Massive Attack. Instead, it sounds like what you'd hear in your head after the tenth day in a sensory deprivation chamber. The music's glitchy, subsonic bubbling offers only the barest suggestion of melody, leaving Samarah's mysterious vocals as the focal point. Her disconnected reverb-soaked musings, often at odds with the rhythms beneath them, only increase the sense of being lost in an inner wilderness.

Samarah does very well at creating textured mood pieces with a relatively limited palette; the swelling atmospheric pads in "Spark" uplift even as they disquiet. What is Beautiful's first two tracks, "Angel's Face" and "Pale Honey", are similar to one another in their subdued click-beats and repetition of lyrics and phrasing. The disc's closer and title track is its most song-like, as Samarah's singing follows something approaching a conventional "verse" pattern (though it retreats into a phased AM-radio-type effect). At twelve minutes long, the EP is difficult to really get into, so it's hard to recommend it as background music, but it's quite lovely; put it in the CD changer on shuffle, along with your Bowery Electric and Bardo Pond discs, and you won't be disappointed.

'So Lovely' by Samarah would make anything Portishead ever released sound like a carol sung by deliriously happy people. The pace here is so languid, that any less spirited, and the song would be pronounced comatose. This is trip-hop ambience of a stylish avant-garde variety, though thankfully with little pretension... just a broken heart worth of feelings.

Samarah places herself in totally sparse surroundings, where the gentle flourishes of piano are but punctuation marks to her tragic voice. If you're a person blessed with the ability to clearly recall what you dreamt at night, you might well recognize that voice from someplace. Simply the stuff of dreams. Richly ethereal, and fractured in a most painstaking manner. Sometimes, you get the feeling that she has to force the words out of her mouth, reluctant as they are to be revealed to a judgmental world. As a result, the song has a broken, meandering flow to it. Indeed, it's almost as though she lulls herself into a deep sleep on occasion, only to arise and carry forth her lament to its eventual death.

Be warned though, this is not a song for the glad-hearted. Even Massive Attack's most sombre moments had an element of melody to them. So Lovely chooses to float on a layer of thoughts instead, both anchored and dragged along by its words. As a reward for persevering with So Lovely, what you will receive is a haunting payback. An instant access to dreams... anytime, anywhere.

1. When did you get the idea to start your band/moniker?
I've been writing songs since I was a wee girl playing piano. I didn't really have the idea to start producing/writing…music chose me I suppose since I've never known anything else.

2. How long have you been doing this project?
I've been producing minimal electronic music under the name Samarah for about four years now. Before that I was spinning records and messing around in rock bands.

3. How did you hear about Hand Stitched Heart?
Through my ninja surfing and networking skills.

4. What is your purpose in making music?
I like to create unique sounds and enjoy sharing them. It's also a much-needed outlet.

5. What kind of goals would you like to see achieved with your music?
I would like my music to inspire.

6. What have you been listening to lately?
DJ Cam, an old Ministry of Sound compilation, Radiohead, People under the Stairs.

7. Have any releases out yet?
Two self-released ep's, a secret mix tape, one mp3 release, two compilations and a full-length that was just co- released November 2005 with Zod Records.

8. Do you ever play live? When was the last time if you have?
I adore playing live and have been since day one. I write all of my songs with the intention of performing them. Last gig was a house party cranking out harder abstract techno and breaks.

9. What are your hobbies?
My main hobbies are geeking out on the Internet, graphic design, eating food made by people who can cook, reading, drawing, and hanging out with my 8 year old daughter. It's amazing how adults forget how much fun bikes, bodily functions, chalk, swings, cards, video games and throwing stuff from high places can be.

10. Where do you work?
I do graphic and web design in healthcare as well as freelancing.

11. Do you visit any websites on a regular basis? Which ones?
A few would be google, belladonnarecords, myspace, del.icio.us,bloglines.

12. How do you normally go about creating new songs?
When I feel inspired to start tinkering around it's usually because that day I heard something that got my creative juices flowing. My most inventive moments tend to happen in the car. I'll hear a good beat on the radio or start humming a song in my head while I'm in traffic…which I'll quick sketch out a stave or record in my cell. Once I have too many rhythms,sounds and textures floating around in my head for me to function I force myself to sit down with my keyboard/laptop/microphone and crank out a couple new songs...it's a sparatic thing really.

13. Who do people say you sound like?
People usually say they can't really compare me to anyone. That makes me happy. I have heard random names like Portishead, Mira Calix and Mum mentioned though.

14. If you HAD to be listed under a particular genre of music, what would you consider yours?

Plain old electronic please…cause some days I'm feeling laid back and make pretty synthy music and some days I'm feeling aggressive and make crunchy, glitchy, pounding music.

15. Where is the most interesting place in the world you've been in your life, and tell us why?
It's a tie between a few… I'd say Chinatown in Manhattan, Manoa Falls near Honolulu, and downtown Madison, WI on Halloween.

16. What does your family think about your music?
They probably think it's strange and weird. They get into the songs that actually have a structure and where my voice doesn't sound like a broken doll being hacked up.

17. How did you get the idea of your name for your band/moniker?
It's a combination of my first name (Sarah) and my daughter's middle name (Amara).

18. How do you go about distributing your music to others?
I post tracks and sell albums online through my website (samarahspace.com) and other outlets such as CDBaby and I-tunes. They are also available at my shows for cheap and at local shops.

19. What was the last record/CD you bought?
A record of old 1960's children's songs from a vinyl bin at a thrift store.