What a small bug would say while hanging off the wing of an airplane… entry/exit point… extended, extended play…. “eep” is Vanessa Lowe’s fourth record. “eep” is also the long lost sister of “57 Suspect Words”, Lowe’s 2004 release. That record dwelled underground, like mole-songs digging little holes in the backyard. Songs about silence, being scared of the life of words, messages from night frogs. But holes fill with rain, and then you have to look up or you drown.
“eep” is of the air, the sky, the cotton clouds. Still traipsing about “the underside of the things that please”, but from a shift in vantage point. Featured here is the confident voice of a woman at peace with the jerky jolts of her magic carpet; an artist keenly aware of the tenuous precipice, and joyfully balancing on one foot. Many of the songs were born of the same era as those on “Suspect Words”. Indeed, the production is similarly textured and eerily atmospheric, creating a mighty companion piece to the previous record. The same band of gifted rascals inhabit it’s world – Ben Freelove on Bass, Toby Hawkins on Percussion, Myles Boisen on electric guitar, and Kent Sparling on, well, almost everything else. Recorded at Guerilla Recording in Oakland, CA and mixed at Skywalker Sound, “eep” benefits from the vintage analog warmth and grit of the former, and the high-tone sheer amazingness of the latter.
Ms. Lowe resides in Berkeley, California where she is soaking up the alternate realities of her three-year-old son, Finn. While still inhabiting the realm of dormant psychologist, she also haunts those of sound documentarian, film producer, and hat knitter extraordinaire.
Lowe currently plays out solo and with her band Bug Eyed Sprite, (Vanessa on voice and guitar, Sparling on tiny instruments, and Freelove on bass). This is not the typical self-confessional singer-songwriter fare. The songs are rarely literal, often surprising, and with arrangements ranging from lush and driving to starkly beautiful.
vanessa lowe
bio