[Exclusivité] Spartan Jet-Plex – NB (Vidéo)
Moins de deux semaines après vous avoir présenté la première du vidéoclip Stage de Woven In, nous retournons chez Grimalkin Records pour vous dévoiler en exclusivité un segment de l’un des albums m’ayant le plus marqué depuis le début de l’année. Ayant participé à la fondation du collectif il y a de cela quelques années, Nancy Grim Kells occupe une partie importante dans la gestion et l’administration de Gr grâce à leur travail remarquable et attentionné. En plus de se charger de l’organisation du label, Kells produit également de la musique sous leur projet Spartan Jet-Plex. Laissant paraître leur nouveau disque Live le 13 septembre prochain et ayant déjà révélé les morceaux Dreambreak (sur God Is In The TV) et Circle (sur Pastel Wasteland), nous avons l’immense privilège de vous divulguer le vidéoclip de NB, cinquième pièce de l’album.
Malgré que le folk expérimental de Spartan Jet-Plex s’éloigne quelque peu de la ligne directrice musicale de MEFD, il la rejoint par sa sensibilité et son authenticité inestimables. NB, exprimant la non-binarité de Kells, propose des paroles pleinement sincères autant par leur candeur que leur vulnérabilité hors de l’ordinaire. La mélodie calme et posée du morceau se veut à la fois sympathique, mais aussi extrêmement touchante. Le vidéoclip accompagnant la chanson s’harmonise à merveille à la musique douce et profonde de NB alors que l’on observe tout bonnement une grenouille. Une œuvre d’une grande simplicité, mais qui reflète toute l’émotivité en place; un magnifique travail visuel réalisé en collaboration avec Pedroso & Pedrosa.
Cet extrait est fidèle à ce qui vous sera possible d’entendre en intégralité le 13 septembre prochain lors de la parution de Live. Album que vous pouvez d’ailleurs précommander sous les formats cassette, vinyle et numérique dès maintenant au lien ci-dessous! Il est à noter que Live sera également disponible sous forme de film.
Texte officiel de l’album:
« Spartan Jet-Plex aka Nancy Grim Kells (they/them) is a founding member of Gr and lives in rural Virginia a little over an hour south of Richmond. Live releases on the 10th anniversary of the death of Kells’ mom and the song Circle is specifically about her.
This past summer also marks the 12th anniversary of Kells living in rural Virginia, which to Kells « is like a strange backwards mirror to the 12 years previously when I was living in Los Angeles. Most people move to LA to find themselves or find something. I moved there to experience life differently, but it wasn’t until I left Los Angels and moved here that I found my queer family and felt part of a music community. »
Although writing and recording music for over 20 years, it was not until 2019 that Kells started playing shows as Spartan Jet-Plex. Kells goes deep in this interview with The All Scene Eye on how playing their music out and honing their mastering skills by remastering older albums has reshaped and helped them reimagine their music in new ways.
On playing out and their new album, Kells explains, « I specifically started with just guitar and vocals knowing I would want to add in other things later once I felt comfortable and happy with my ability to play a set live. It’s difficult to capture what I do on records in a live setting so I decided just to do stripped down versions and work on mastering that. I doubt I ever will, but I played out quite frequently and I was getting better, more confident and less nervous, although I doubt I will ever not feel nervous playing live. After playing out a while, I imagined making transition pieces that I could play between songs. I do this a lot on my albums and on several past album tracks. From there, I decided to create an album that would sound like I am hoping my live sets will be like once playing out is a thing again. It was on my mind quite a bit, and after the pandemic began and I was laid off, I finally decided that this was a good opportunity to work on this idea. When I play live again, the transition pieces I created on this album will be played between songs. »
This release also contains a secret album of field recordings that Kells has been collecting since moving to Virginia in 2008. It will be available to those who purchase and download Live. Lastly, Kells created a film version of Live with collaborator and Gr member, Rafael de Toledo Pedroso, and their partner Pedro Pedrosa. They used footage of Kells’ yard, home and cats juxtaposed with footage of life in Rafael’s and Pedro’s towns in Paraná and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. Rafa also did all the editing and effects for the film. Kells plans to use a version of this film as a backdrop for their live sets in the future. The songs from Live are also available as individual music videos.
There’s a dual meaning in the title Live. Although Kells is once again reflecting on the struggles and meanings in life and death this album also celebrates life and living and how Virginia has truly TRANSformed their life in various ways for the better. Through this living also came Grimalkin, which was born from their love of teaching, facilitating, grassroots organizing, mutual aid, community, found family, advocacy, and music.
Proceeds from this album go to Gr’s label and mutual aid fund. »