Electronica for Everyman: Science for Girls

I assumed that Darren Solomon's project, Science for Girls, made an excellent disc, because Paul Brill is one of the guest singers. And any project Paul Brill is involved with is always tremendous.

This was a correct assumption.

Assembling friends to flesh out his vision, Solomon has produced an album of exquisite, electronic, engaging, everyman pop music. The vision is cohesive, but with unique guesting voices on most tracks, the variety creates a “hustle and flow” of style.

It begins with “14 Days” (featuring Bronwen Exter) like the soft jazz/electronica/Eurojazz of Koop. “Northern Lights” (featuring Boots Ottestad) uses subdued, crunchy beats like Rob Smith but has this organic, expansive pop melody about seeing the aurora borealis near Denali—as if part of an alternate soundtrack for Into the Wild.

“You’ll Never Know” is like the hand-grooving dance track from that Mitsubishi car ad (was that Royksopp?). Brill guest in the exact right place on “Australia,” a Casio beat, folky “Down Under” (Men at Work) about a quirky desire to be an Aussie. For “Peace Heart” (featuring Alexandra Slous) and its summer R&B sound, picture a confident woman striding down the street—knowing what she wants (didn’t want), knows, and needs, saying of her former lover, “I’m Louis Vuitton and you’re so Target (faux French pronounciation)”.

Finally, English teachers take notice. Just in time for April’s National Poetry Month, “Sonnet 96” takes William Shakespeare’s sonnet in whole. William Rottman sings in a voice reminiscent of Jim Moray (folk-influenced IRE/UK rock) over electronic noise/melody backing. Shakespeare didn’t imagine such a setting for his words, but could it be that it unleashes the grit and reality behind his words that today we often think of as lofty and erudite?

Science for Girls