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Margaux — More Brilliant Is the Hand That Throws the Coin (Nov. 15th, 2019) Pamela MÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃéndez ÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃâ Time (22 Feb 2019)
∇   Píseň „Cave In“ ve fascinujícím představení o dvou polovinách začíná vzdušně a složitě. Asi jako ty rané lo~fi nahrávky Angel Olsen. Ovšem jen do té chvíle, než to náhle bouchne do života při ‚padesáté druhé‘ značce, když se objeví rachot klaustrofobních basů. Odtud se track začíná jemně deformovat směrem ke zkreslení zvuku, pak znovuobjevovat jako plátek emotivního  rockového přikývnutí Julii Jacklin nebo Snail Mail 90. let. Lyricky — zdá se, že pak už je song marným pokusem znovuobjevit sama sebe v průběhu jediné vteřiny. Jde o pokus „vyšplhání se z něčí paměti“ a další pointou je, „pronásledovaná stejně starou věcí — vším“. Tato píseň, která má více zajímavých nápadů, než kompletní alba mnoha lidí, přichází ve velkém stylu a nevypadá, že by šla bezcílně kamkoli.
∇   Existuje teorie — popularizovaná v klíčovém románu Clarissa Pinkola Estes’s — „Women Who Run With the Wolves“, ale která se datuje od nepaměti — že v každé ženě žije nespočet archetypů, od starověké, zveličené babičky po malé dítě. Aby mohl do ženy plně vstoupit do její osobnosti, musí být v kontaktu se všemi těmito silami, ale ženy příliš často potlačují části sebe sama, zejména jejich „divokou“ povahu, nekontrolovatelnou životní sílu, která latentně žije uvnitř. Margaux píše z pohledu někoho, kdo zahájil tuto cestu a snaží se rozšířit vnímání minulosti ostatními, zatímco integruje minulost a budoucnost do rozpoznatelné unie. Je to důkaz hudební činnosti a schopnosti přetočit dětskou nostalgii, prvotní moudrost a tolik nástrojů do takové lehké harmonie, bez námahy.
Name: Margaux Bouchegnies
Location: Seattle, WA ~ Brooklyn, NYC
Album release: Nov. 15th, 2019
Record Label: MASSIF RECORDS
Duration:     22:38
Tracks:
1. Cave In   4:52
2. Faced with Fire   4:54
3. Hot Faced   3:45
4. Palm   4:34
5. Smaller Home   4:33
Personnel:
∇   Margaux Bouchegnies: acoustic guitar, electric guitar, electric bass, upright bass, piano, keyboards, bottlecap, handbells, glockenspiel, and mellotron
About:
∇    “Cave In” is the follow up to “Palm” released earlier this month to wonderful feedback and comparison to artists such as Snail Mail, Courtney Barnett, Stella Donnelly and Taken by Trees.   
∇    Ear to the Ground Music said “this is no ordinary tune, as it definitely offers us some interesting nuances post~chorus and even such a unique change in tone on the latter end of the song. It’s beautifully performed, written, and chock full of subtle genius.”  Austin Town Hall  “Margaux is a songwriter living in Brooklyn, but I hear a little bit of the softened vibes of maybe a Stella Donnelly in the way she’s crafted this track. Sure, there’s the intimacy of the strummed notes, but the song’s opening first few minutes have this playfulness that really makes fans swoon, or at least this particular listener,”  and Mystic Sons said “the U.S.frontwoman introduces herself with this light and airy Courtney Barnett~inspired debut.” 
∇    “The first half and the second half of this track literally sound like two different songs, and honestly that is the type of cohesiveness I’m usually fascinated by.” — Stereofox  
∇    “Cave In” that sonically is inspired by the late ’80s and early 90’s indie rock scene is a stunning guitar~driven song about feeling stuck inside someone’s perception of a younger version of yourself and the seemingly futile effort to change their view.  The EP is rounded out by three additional tracks, five total that include“Hot Faced,” a song beautifully peppered with string arrangements, written from a place of anger after realizing how as a young woman, she had been so conditioned to act  submissive and small.” “Faced with Fire,” is a quirky and beautiful written track about longing to know what it could feel like to be completely in love, and “Smaller Home,” a contemplative song with haunting horn arrangements, about visiting home after being gone to college and  the tension and ambiguity Margaux felt seeing herself differently in such a familiar place. Margaux is originally from Seattle and at only 20 years old, as a full~time student at the New School,  Margaux writes with a stone~faced maturity far beyond her years drawing influence from  70’s folk~rock storytellers such as Joni Mitchell, multi~faceted musical impresario Lyle Brewer, and the incomparable David Byrne.
∇    Her debut EP, More Brilliant is the Hand that Throws the Coin was produced by Sahil Ansari (Slow Dakota, JW Francis), with the help of friends and friends of friends (Reid Jenkins of Morningsiders, and Willem DeKoch of The Westerlies). 
∇    https://circuitsweet.co.uk/ 
Twitter: https://twitter.com/m3argaux 
Review
Eden Arielle Gordon, 14 November 2019
Caught between others’ perceptions and her true nature, Margaux finds space for reflection on her first release.
∇    The product, “More Brilliant is the Hand that Throws the Coin,” is as intricate as you might expect from an album that winds so many different sounds together. Perhaps even more miraculously, despite the richness of the arrangements and the often poetic and nuanced lyrics, the songs feel remarkably simple, brewed from evenings spent journaling by candlelight, sifting through memories as the snowfalls.
∇    Despite its cohesive veneer, the album, which was produced by Sahil Ansari (Slow Dakota, JW Francis), is often about internal chaos and the pesky tempestuousness of the heart. The closer you listen, the more its depth, texture, and contradictions reveal themselves. This contrast — between simplicity and complexity, and between restraint and wild release — is a central theme on the EP, which is ultimately a reflection on the universal yet unavoidably complex matter that is growing up.
∇    The song “Cave In” is about “feeling stuck inside someone’s perception of me as a younger version of myself and the seemingly futile effort to change their view,” the 20~year~old Seattle native said. Similarly, “Hot Faced” was written when she was “feeling angry about how conditioned I’ve been as a young woman to act so submissive and small,” a message that will resonate with any woman who’s felt trapped within a shell of submissiveness. “Hot faced / lamb woman, Too quiet / to be noticed,” she sings. Later on, she says, “I wanna see myself malfunctioning I wanna see myself skip in place.” Desperate to show her true colors, yet held back by the world around her, she switches between tempos and tone colors, and between the way others see her and who she wants to be.
∇    At last, the seams break open on “Palm,” allowing the fullness that’s been hinted at in previous songs to surge outwards. Though it starts as a more upbeat tune, “Palm” soon collapses into a moody guitar riff that swells into a whirlwind of strings, billowing synths, and expressive drums. The song’s lyrics are about holding back for fear of being too much, but eventually, she gives in to her true emotions and finds her power, and what follows is a dazzling and dreamlike outro.
∇    The final track, “Smaller Home,” a perfect road trip song, is about returning briefly to a place you no longer live and realizing that though you’ve changed, the place has stayed the same. “I’m moving every day,” she finally concludes. “Can’t stay an age.” It’s a wise message about the bittersweet inevitability of change.
∇    There’s a theory — popularized in Clarissa Pinkola Estes’s seminal novel Women Who Run With the Wolves but dating back to time immemorial — that within each woman lives countless archetypes, from an ancient, wizened crone to a young child. To fully access her personhood, a woman needs to be in contact with all these forces, but too often, women suppress parts of themselves, particularly their “wildish” nature, that uncontrollable life force that lives latent within.
∇    Margaux writes from the perspective of someone who has begun this journey and is working to expand past others’ perceptions of her while integrating the past and future into a discernible union. It’s a testament to her musicianship that she’s able to spin childlike nostalgia, primordial wisdom, and so many instruments into such a light, effortless harmony.
∇    https://www.popdust.com/ 

ALBUM COVERS XI.