Driving Your Body Around

Scout Niblett “Lullaby For Scout In Ten Years” – Since her voice bears an undeniable resemblence to Chan Marshall, Scout Niblett is doomed to a life of constant comparisons to Cat Power. Niblett lacks that soulful, ineffable quality in Marshall’s voice that forces the listener into emotional submission, but makes up for that with a knack for minimal arrangements and a willingness to dramatically stomp on her distortion pedal like it’s 1992. With its slow, stark verses and exaggerated heavy sections, this song mimics the fragile bipolar dynamics of Nirvana’s In Utero more than anything in the Cat Power catalog. (Click here to buy it from Beggars Group.)

Isolée “Schrapnell” -There’s an entire movie in the sound of this song, but I have no idea what it might be about. The guitar motif seems vaguely “cowboys and indians” to me, but everything else seems so crisp and modern, as though it’s taking place in a world that looks like European design magazines. (Click here for the non-very-useful Isolée official site.)