Her Stems Spiral - Princess Poured Out The Pale Winter Moon digital EP

I say this all the time, but the best selling point, to your music is the packaging, just love this cover art on this one and it fits nicely with the music...other worldly.  Shannon, who essentially is the entire band (with help from Matthew on drums/percussion) hit me up to give his creation a listen )on a side note his was the most polite and personal request I have had yet for a review). This thing came all the way from South Africa, via wires and whatnot, to basically unsettle my brain. My reply to Shannon was, "As far as the tunes, wow! Shoegaze is a category I've heard of but honestly couldn't name one band that fits that description, and math-rock is something I am only lately getting in touch with. If those are what you are then I can dig it. I realize that you are playing live instruments, one at a time anyway, but the sound has an industrial vibe, which is way up on my radar. Jazzy too, which says a lot about your musicianship. Love the cover art, would really look good on a hard copy."  In response to my ignorance of the shoegaze/math rock genres, Shannon mentioned that this music had been influenced by, "Alcest, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Kayo Dot, Dråpe, Chelsea Wolfe, My Bloody Valentine, The Blood Brothers etc"...I honestly have never heard of any of these bands.  So let HSS be my introduction, and I'll be damned if I'm not impressed.  The bio from Last.FM reads "Her Stems Spiral is an avant-garde/shoegaze project started by Shannon Lawlor of the Johannesburg based post-rock band Eyes Like Mirrors. It was created as an entity to explore the realms of experimental music and unconventional song-writing. Dreams, or the unconscious mind played a major role in the development of this release. Lyrics range from stories of the past, to mother nature’s revenge, and even some self-reflection. Shannon’s first effort titled “Princess Poured Out The Pale Winter Moon” was recorded in a small independent studio called MoonSwing, in Johannesburg, South Africa, from mid 2012 – early 2013 using a single condenser microphone, and limited to hardware/software. All vocals and instruments were written and composed on the spot in studio, as an experiment to conduct the relationship between the subconscious subliminal influence and the unconscious fantasies of the mind." To summarize all that, what you have is a guy who has written, composed and performed something of a exquisite enigma. It's a bit of a strange this, ranging from dreamy to intense. You wouldn't think that it had been so impromptu, the songs don't seem to be thrown together as much as wrought or forged. And with a guy playing so many separate tracks, it doesn't sound like ten different incarnations of Shannon doing completely different things, but much more harmonious...in a chaotic sort of way. There are some King Crimson moments here and there, sometimes it reminds me of one of my favorite bands Creedle, and overall it has a jazzy quality to it. Not being a musician, I'm sure that some of this is way over my head, because, in case you didn't know it, musicians talk to each other through their music, without the rest of us knowing they're doing it. Like Frank Zappa who always surrounded himself with the best of musicians, Shannon has done a great service to his music, by having Mathew sit in on drums. By all rights and purposes he is a part of this the music, just like a guitar has two E strings. Shannon had been playing in the band Eyes Like Mirrors, but I think they are on a hiatus of sorts, at the moment. There is a huge web presence for this band as there is with a lot of bands in these internet convenient days (remember when all underground bands had was zines, word of mouth and live performances to speak for them), there's a Last.FM, a Soundcloud, a Facebook, an interview at Harum Scarum Records and you can give the whole thing a listen (and download at "name your price") at Bandcamp. I hope Shannon doesn't mind but I wanted to share my favorite song here in the site, a tune called "Asleep On The Ferris Again"... [audio mp3="http://mustard-relics.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Asleep-On-The-Ferris-Again-Her-Stems-Spiral.mp3"][/audio] Once again, go to the Bandcamp below, to give the whole thing a listen and have a chance to put it on your iPod!... http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=490679998/size=medium/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/transparent=true/