Torres - Sprinter on CD

Description

Brooklyn's TORRES - aka Mackenzie Scott - returns with her second full-length LP, Sprinter, via Partisan Records; the follow-up to the Nashville-bred songwriter's acclaimed self-titled debut album. Scott escaped the confines of her churning mind, however, in order to find herself by recording Sprinter in the market town of Bridport in Dorset, England; and then at the Bristol studio of Portishead's Adrian Utley. With his guitar riffs and synthesizers lingering in the background like a lowland mist and PJ Harvey's Robert Ellis and Ian Olliver on rhythm-the two fortuitously reuniting 23 years after the release of Dry, and in Scott's 23rd year of living-she crafted a "space cowboy" record. "That's as simply as I can say it," says Scott, who cites inspirations as diverse as Funkadelic and Nirvana, Ray Bradbury and Joan Didion. "I wanted something that very clearly stemmed from my Southern conservative roots but that sounded futuristic and space-y at the same time."
 It's a balancing act that Scott manages to perfection across Sprinter's nine tracks, a prime example being the record's contagious sixth track, 'Cowboy Guilt', which juxtaposes the contrast of Deep South conservatism with future sounds, juxtaposing George W. Bush parodies with wearing one's Sunday best, bouncing on a mechanically whimsical melody. On the very next track, 'Ferris Wheel', she'll be building to crescendos of longing atop squalls of ambient noise and submerged guitar chords. It's a versatile suite, sure, but one that never loses track of its focus: constantly mining the depths of self, fearlessly melding genres and, ultimately, facing down the darkness.