Cyclic Defrost

Pit Er Pat is yet another interesting three-piece to emerge from Chicago’s art fuelled post-indie rocker scene. Now signed to the Thrill Jockey label, vocalist-keyboardist Fay Davis-Jeffers, drummer Butchy Fuego and bassist Rob Doran have just completed their second album, ‘Pyramids’. Recorded in only eleven days with Tortoise’s John Mc Entire it’s a vivid treatise that references sounds in surprising combinations. The overall mood is a giant fairytale populated with monsters, ghoulish souls, long dark nights, glimmers of light and many moments of sweetness. Davis-Jeffers has one of those delightfully girly pop voices that wouldn’t sit awry in bands like Broadcast, The Concretes or even Stars. Yet in combination with the melancholy lyrics, ominous creepy-crawling bass, haunting organ melodies and soft-textural synth effects she’s right at home as she tells her stories,

“I like the dark, ‘cause it’s like I don’t exist, I’m part of the air, just like snowfall, shadow passing slipping through the air unnoticed, out here, hidden away from all the tremendous fear down there (from the track, ‘Baby’s Fist’).”

The naïve renditions are simply charming in a similar way that lyrics by The Knife or Balun make you feel you can unlock the imagination of the inner child as all sorts of delights spill forth. On other tracks such as ‘No Money=No Friend’ she motions, “follow me, we are going to burn everything” as psychedelic key changes create a musical whirlpool around her. In many ways Pit Er Pat’s style is a very gentle and restrained jazz jam, as illustrated by tracks like ‘Swamp’. Even when they rock out, there’s still a soft sea of pitter-pattering steel brush strings and gentle driving guitar riffs as birds sing softly in the distance. Overall there is a strong sense of mastery at work here. The band is conscious of the boundaries they seek to cross, voicing a unique perspective with an air of (seemingly) effortless refinement.

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