| Jay Som — Turn Into (July 22, 2016) |
Jay Som — Turn Into (July 22, 2016)
♠ Jay Som represents the musical vision of San Francisco singer, songwriter, and multi–instrumentalist Melina Duterte. Constantly shifting, that vision embraces indie, alternative, pop, and even a little shoegaze assembled by its architect’s hand like an infinite puzzle with no border. This unpredictable sonic sensibility is threaded together by melody but never bound to it. Turn Into, a collection of finished and unfinished songs written, recorded, and mixed between March 2014–October 2015, offers a snapshot of her musical evolution up to this point.
♠ Her self–described “headphone music” is the product of a full musical immersion that began during her childhood in the Bay Area. Born to a DJ dad and singer mom, she spent her formative years studying old cassettes and records as well as performing on the family karaoke machine. She picked up trumpet before eventually teaching herself guitar.
Location: San Francisco, California
Album release: July 22, 2016
Record Label: Polyvinyl Record Co.
Genre: Alternative
Duration: 32:58
Tracks:
01. Peach Boy 3:13
02. Ghost 3:07
03. Next to Me 3:39
04. Drown 2:52
05. Our Red Door 3:56
06. Unlimited Touch 4:05
07. Why I Say No 4:41
08. Slow 4:02
09. Turn Into 3:23
♠ All tracks composed, arranged, produced, and performed by Melina Duterte.
♠ Recorded, mixed, and mastered in Melina’s room aka EMA studios from March 2014 to October 2015.
♠ Thank you Mom and Dad, the Polyvinyl team, Maxine Garcia, Corinne Wacher, Zachary Elsasser, Dylan Allard, Oliver Pinnell, Daniel Mandrychenko, Chad Heimann, Jeff Koenig, Jackie Ulman, Marshall Betts, Ethan Berlin, Fil Cala, and my dogs.
♠ Thank you for helping me — thank you for listening.
Review
Valerie Veteto
♠ Melina Duterte has been a musician for 13 years — which is impressive, considering she’s only 22 years old. But ever since she was a teenager, Duterte has been creating intimate fuzz–pop under the moniker Jay Som, and the buzz in her native San Francisco has pegged her as the Bay Area’s next big breakout. The early press has borne that theory out: Pitchfork blessed her song “I Think You’re Alright” with a glowing track review.*
♠ Turn Into, her first full–length, began life as a demo tape shot off into the Internet abyss. Duterte uploaded it to Bandcamp in late 2015, dubbing it nine “finished and unfinished songs.” Now, it’s getting a proper re–release through Polyvinyl Records. The immediately obvious standout is “Next To Me” — a polished stab at something more upbeat and sweetly lilting, similar in style to Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin. Lyrically, it’s hard–hitting: “And fuck being patient. I’m fragile — I’m not weak.”
♠ Indeed, Duterte’s strength and determination runs through Turn Into like a molten iron core, a firm anchor and foil for her gauzy instrumentation and melodies. The interplay between grit and sweetness drives Turn Into forward, making it an emotionally honest snapshot of an artist beginning to find her identity. — Valerie Veteto
* Notes:
Sam Lefebvre, June 1, 2016
♠ In “I Think You’re Alright,” San Francisco songwriter Melina Duterte articulates the narcotic allure of a one–sided romance, cooing soft images of subjugation atop a sagging beat: “I’ll be your old broken TV/Your stuttering baby/Your puppy when nobody’s home.” As Duterte put it, “I wanted to write about giving your all to someone you shouldn’t.”
♠ But what starts as a slowcore torch song for resignation resolves with a fiery shift in tone: fuzz guitar, previously lurking behind Duterte’s verses, seems to writhe the narrator free, disentangling her. As if written from the perspective of Jenny Lewis’ subject in the great “Godspeed,” the song erupts like it had to, or at least like you’d hoped it would.
♠ “I Think You’re Alright” is the A–side of Duterte’s new 7” as Jay Som. Though it’s her first official release, the 22 year–old songwriter’s Bandcamp and Soundcloud reveal a steep five–year trajectory: quivering acoustic covers lead up to last year’s Turn Into, a collection of nine “finished and unfinished songs” that plays like a confident album. They're deceivingly textured and intricate pop songs — flush with nimbly intertwined guitar melodies and distressed fidelity — that should continue to resonate outside of San Francisco during Jay Som’s summer tour supporting Japanese Breakfast and Mitski. And it’s an especially good time for Duterte to emerge from the city, what with the pernicious rumors about San Francisco’s musical decline. ♠ http://pitchfork.com/
Bandcamp: https://jaysom.bandcamp.com/album/turn-into
Twitter: https://twitter.com/jaysomband
Website: http://www.jaysommusic.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jaysommusic/
Label: https://www.polyvinylrecords.com/
♠*♠*♠*♠*♠*♠*♠*♠*♠*♠*♠*♠*♠*♠*♠*♠*♠*♠*♠*♠*♠*♠*♠*♠*♠*♠*♠*♠*♠*♠*♠*♠*♠*
| Jay Som — Turn Into (July 22, 2016) |
♠ Her self–described “headphone music” is the product of a full musical immersion that began during her childhood in the Bay Area. Born to a DJ dad and singer mom, she spent her formative years studying old cassettes and records as well as performing on the family karaoke machine. She picked up trumpet before eventually teaching herself guitar.
Album release: July 22, 2016
Record Label: Polyvinyl Record Co.
Genre: Alternative
Duration: 32:58
Tracks:
01. Peach Boy 3:13
02. Ghost 3:07
03. Next to Me 3:39
04. Drown 2:52
05. Our Red Door 3:56
06. Unlimited Touch 4:05
07. Why I Say No 4:41
08. Slow 4:02
09. Turn Into 3:23
♠ All tracks composed, arranged, produced, and performed by Melina Duterte.
♠ Recorded, mixed, and mastered in Melina’s room aka EMA studios from March 2014 to October 2015.
♠ Thank you Mom and Dad, the Polyvinyl team, Maxine Garcia, Corinne Wacher, Zachary Elsasser, Dylan Allard, Oliver Pinnell, Daniel Mandrychenko, Chad Heimann, Jeff Koenig, Jackie Ulman, Marshall Betts, Ethan Berlin, Fil Cala, and my dogs.
♠ Thank you for helping me — thank you for listening.
Review
Valerie Veteto
♠ Melina Duterte has been a musician for 13 years — which is impressive, considering she’s only 22 years old. But ever since she was a teenager, Duterte has been creating intimate fuzz–pop under the moniker Jay Som, and the buzz in her native San Francisco has pegged her as the Bay Area’s next big breakout. The early press has borne that theory out: Pitchfork blessed her song “I Think You’re Alright” with a glowing track review.*
♠ Turn Into, her first full–length, began life as a demo tape shot off into the Internet abyss. Duterte uploaded it to Bandcamp in late 2015, dubbing it nine “finished and unfinished songs.” Now, it’s getting a proper re–release through Polyvinyl Records. The immediately obvious standout is “Next To Me” — a polished stab at something more upbeat and sweetly lilting, similar in style to Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin. Lyrically, it’s hard–hitting: “And fuck being patient. I’m fragile — I’m not weak.”
♠ Indeed, Duterte’s strength and determination runs through Turn Into like a molten iron core, a firm anchor and foil for her gauzy instrumentation and melodies. The interplay between grit and sweetness drives Turn Into forward, making it an emotionally honest snapshot of an artist beginning to find her identity. — Valerie Veteto
* Notes:
Sam Lefebvre, June 1, 2016
♠ In “I Think You’re Alright,” San Francisco songwriter Melina Duterte articulates the narcotic allure of a one–sided romance, cooing soft images of subjugation atop a sagging beat: “I’ll be your old broken TV/Your stuttering baby/Your puppy when nobody’s home.” As Duterte put it, “I wanted to write about giving your all to someone you shouldn’t.”
♠ But what starts as a slowcore torch song for resignation resolves with a fiery shift in tone: fuzz guitar, previously lurking behind Duterte’s verses, seems to writhe the narrator free, disentangling her. As if written from the perspective of Jenny Lewis’ subject in the great “Godspeed,” the song erupts like it had to, or at least like you’d hoped it would.
♠ “I Think You’re Alright” is the A–side of Duterte’s new 7” as Jay Som. Though it’s her first official release, the 22 year–old songwriter’s Bandcamp and Soundcloud reveal a steep five–year trajectory: quivering acoustic covers lead up to last year’s Turn Into, a collection of nine “finished and unfinished songs” that plays like a confident album. They're deceivingly textured and intricate pop songs — flush with nimbly intertwined guitar melodies and distressed fidelity — that should continue to resonate outside of San Francisco during Jay Som’s summer tour supporting Japanese Breakfast and Mitski. And it’s an especially good time for Duterte to emerge from the city, what with the pernicious rumors about San Francisco’s musical decline. ♠ http://pitchfork.com/
Bandcamp: https://jaysom.bandcamp.com/album/turn-into
Twitter: https://twitter.com/jaysomband
Website: http://www.jaysommusic.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jaysommusic/
Label: https://www.polyvinylrecords.com/
♠*♠*♠*♠*♠*♠*♠*♠*♠*♠*♠*♠*♠*♠*♠*♠*♠*♠*♠*♠*♠*♠*♠*♠*♠*♠*♠*♠*♠*♠*♠*♠*♠*