Australian duo Mess Esque will release their new album, Jay Marie, Comfort Me on March 28 via Drag City. The twin spirits of Mick Turner (Dirty Three) and Helen Franzmann (McKisko) are in no great hurry to get wherever their communal muses might lead them. Their music is marked by thoughtful strides, never rushing forward without considering the impact of each step — but that doesn’t mean they lack a spark of spontaneity; it’s just that they approach their work without preconceived notions of where it’s going and work through each bit of turbulence as they appear. They are joined on the record by Keeley Young and Kishore Ryan, two mainstays of their touring band, as well as cellist Stephanie Arnold and percussionists Bree van Reykand and Jim White, Turner’s bandmate in Dirty Three.
On the album’s lead single, “Take Me to Your Infinite Garden, the band revel in a world of thumping toms, swells of iceberg-sized guitar riffs, spiky organ, and Franzmann’s expressive voice. It clatters and stomps, a ramshackle machine of inordinate proportions. Distortion and static chew at the edges while everything disintegrates round us. Somehow they manage to hold it all together, working with sandpaper textures and concave contours. There’s a sense of ritualistic procession here, dark incantations and visions loping around in ecstatic circles while we deal with the ensuing ambiguity.
The accompanying video was directed by Charlie Hillhouse.
Listen below.
Jay Marie, Comfort Me is due out March 28 via Drag City. You can pre-order the album here. Follow the band on Facebook and Instagram.
