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 Ms
John Soda
Over the past few years John
Soda was a little robot on t-shirts, tour flyers and
on the first album's cover "No P. Or D." released
in September 2002. A robot; an analogue way of imagining
the digital world. The human-being imagined as a machine
with all its little faults, doubts and passions. Ms.
John Soda also stand for an analogue idea of digital
music - or precisely the opposite. Along with all their
little faults, doubts and passions. "Things May
Seem Somehow Unsure In Times", it says in one of
the questioning moments of "Notes And The Like".
"There Is No View That's Not Produced In One Person's
Mind", it says elsewhere. Stefanie Böhm sings
through her and our world beyond all too simple truths.
She shows us images. She shows how these images become
blurred and fade. "Hiding / Fading", being
a song on the first album. "Notes And The Like"
has become a songwriter album. Loud and soft, warm and
wide-awake. It may surprise those who have caught one
of the band's energetic live performances - it being
more human being and less machine. It is in fact more
the opposite: The little robot has been rummaging around
in the instruments cupboard. Ms. John Soda have extended
the direct address of their concerts by softer and more
many-voiced articulations. Undisguised and close, this
is how one can describe the voice and the melodics of
Stefanie Böhm. Surrounded by ensnaring bass guitars,
carefully assembled percussive sounds, synthesizer,
a string quartet, a soft vibrato and a glockenspiel.
"Scan The Ways" is a hungry track with an
almost nervous start. Basses whine, electronics squeal,
the vocals are performed via spoken words, and, address
you. Clearly. "A Million Times" begins as
a chamber music excursion, silent and indulging. It
shows how far Ms. John Soda have come on this - their
second - album. They have travelled far but remain still
close to themselves. Intimately close a lot of the time.
Cosy and uncanny at the same time. Finally "Plenty
Of" closes the album almost cinematographically.
Like the last picture of an italo western movie, the
heroes ride off into the sunset, or they would had we
not just learned from Ms. John Soda that it is not that
easy with heroes at all.
Links
www.msjohnsoda.de
www.morrmusic.com
www.hausmusik.com
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