If there's a reference point for the music of Brooklyn's EFFI BRIEST, it lies somewhere in a twilight zone between the exploratory abandon of early D.I.Y. and a sort of visionary macabre, like the sound of a ghost band at a seance. Not to say that the sounds these six women make are strictly ethereal or morose; voices, guitars, accordion and an ocarina form a free-leaning haze over a backbone of shaker-garage. The communal aspect is key. You can see it's the convergence of seven distinct personalities, pulling from as many sources as are vital to them without standing in anyone's shadow. In a sense they're writing their own rules, and that comes across in the originals. An EFFI BRIEST song may start out in one sonic terrain and wind up after a few scenic asides in another realm entirely, but there's an underlying unity that belies a certain acuity of creative purpose. This spirit, unity and creativity stretches back through a long lineage of influences including: Can, Lilliput,Kate Bush, Liquid Liquid, and Soft Machine In the last year or so, you might have been lucky enough to catch them on tour in California supporting Sunburned Hand of the Man, at San Francisco's Mission Creek Festival or LA's Arthur Nights, or as the house band at an afterparty for New York's Deitch Projects. There's a full length in the cards, but in the meantime Loog Records is proud to present their debut single, 'MIRRORRIM' b/w 'Newlyweds Song'. The A side is an original written — with a nod to the literary experiments of the Oulipo — entirely in palindromes, and the reverse is a cover of Jim Pepper's little known classic.
EFFI BRIEST:Vocals, Auto Harp – Kelsey BarrettBass – Elizabeth HartDrums – Corinee JonesGuitar – Sara ShawAccordion, Clarinet, Vocals – Rebecca SquiresPercussion – Jessica Stathos
'Named after a novel published in 1894 and filmed by Fassbinder 80 years later, Effie Briest are seven women, any and each of whom, according to the band, could be the eponymous herione. The A-side of their debut single, Mirror Rim, is constructed around a series of palidromes.' -The Guardian