But a week after discovering Niobe's White Hats, I want to shrink her down and take her everywhere I go. She could be tinkerbell to my Peter Pan; Sam to my Frodo; Ringo to my rest of The Beatles! I've literally worn White Hats out, listening to it over and over and over and over and over and over and over and, you know, OVER-OVER-OVER. It hasn't left my workplace CD player, and on my most-recent college radio show, I played four of her songs.
For the average person, this kind of lavish attention is commonly given to a new music purchase. However, for a rabid reviewer like Gumshoe, this is nothing short of staggering. Niobe has had to fight through dozens of promo CDs and claw her way through a giant record collection, all just to be heard. And somehow, some way, she did it. And I'm not even tired of her yet!
So who is this bitch, you might be asking (and I'll thank you not to call my new infatuation a bitch!)... well, she's a very special lady, probably from a faraway land like Sweden or Denmark or Zimbabwe. But guess what — I don't give a shit where she's from! In fact, I'm not even going to tell you! I'm simply going to state that YOU need to hear this whether or not you tend to like this sort of space-age pop. The most amazing thing about White Hats is its ability to make us forget about the runts of the litter. "Cool Alpine" is an absolutely WOEFUL display of electronic wankery, sounding like Stereolab without guitars, keys, or a soul, and "Touch This Flower" is a mess, spearing string samples, glitches, a 'tick-tick' beat, and Niobe's voice with the same stickpin and then flicking them onto the floor. It's a mess. I'm not even going to go into "Surround Your Hover" or "Up Hill and Down Dale" because they're both too lame in wayyyy too many ways. It's not worth it, man...
Alas, the key cuts are so warm and enveloping it's silly to resist. White Hats makes its first impression with "Give All to Love," which floats overhead like a magic carpet helmed by a schizophrenic lady-crooner. Here we catch our first glimpse of Niobe's purr, so comforting yet so haunting; so distant yet so close, and all the while an engrossing collage of finger snaps, kiddie-show organs, shimmying shakers, and astray voices combine to form the most calming mind-fuck this side of a hot bath in a tub of absinthe. "Well and Wise" dips into more double-tracked, almost robotic coos, and little else save the clang of a triangle, but don't worry: it's more than enough to keep your attention affixed. That is until the seductive, fur-coat non-groove of the title track once again employs minimalism in the most effective way possible, coating Niobe's now-bare voice in faraway acoustic guitar.
Then the most elegant, beautiful garment of White Hats strikes absolute gold. "Drei Zinnen" is sinfully abstract and delectably stealth. Patching her vocals in static-y phone calls from an about-to-crash plane, "Zinnen" sounds like a Wizard of Oz solo vocal combined with a sultry classical fem-jazz singer, processed to the teet, and paired with strings that sooth. Truth be told, the awe-inspiring vocals would be enough on their own; they're that magnifying, that enchanting. So alien and familiar at the same time it could accompany both déjà vu and a bad dream, "Zinnen" is to 2006 what "Winters Love" was to 2004: so unexpected and lovely I want to show the world.
Rarely does such an inconsistent album warrant repeated listens. You'll curse sweet Niobe for her faults, but you'll also find yourself asking just how many of the songs of White Hats were envisioned, and what tools were used. If ambient music were more consistently exciting, this is how I imagine it would sound, a slow sea-mist drifting through the air, so subtle you could miss it if you're not listening intently. In other words, keep your ears open for Niobe and her sultry tunes, and beware of the runts.
1. Give All to Love
2. Well and Wise
3. Surround Your Hover
4. White Hats
5. Touch this Flower
6. Phosphorous
7. Drei Zinnen
8. Up Hill and Down Dale
9. Shirocco & Mistral
10. In the Sun
11. None But One
12. The Hills
13. Cool Alpines
More about: Niobe
