Inconsistency undercuts powerful vocals on EP


We all mimic the sights and sounds around us, whether by nature or ambition. Morgan Kibby, a Los Angeles native who has spent several years working and touring with M83’s Anthony Gonzalez, providing pop-inclined vocals and assisting on the keyboards, is no exception. After some considerable time away from public life, Kibby has returned under the name White Sea, with a new EP that is as schizophrenic and lazy as it is occasionally spellbinding.

Leaping from weak dream pop to Euro-trance throwbacks, This Frontier achieves consistency only in its compositions. The synths that Kibby presumably grew to know quite well since the recording of M83’s Saturdays = Youth are all here and for the most part unleash an interesting zoo of waves, ripping through some choruses like sharks’ teeth.

Lost at sea · EP jumps from a poppy to dark, ethereal sound. - Photos courtesy of Ink Tank PR

What’s missing is a sense of focus. Under the direction of Gonzalez, Kibby’s indisputably haunting pipes, comparable to those of Kate Bush, were put to fine use, evoking the lusty personal melodramas of the 1980s John Hughes era. Left to her own devices, she extends her talents unadvisedly beyond their means.

“Ladykiller,” the EP’s most stilted track, is the strongest instance of such admirable but nonetheless disappointing posturing. Although the keys are nice and dirty, complimenting the sampled screams and pants in a sufficiently sultry manner, Kibby tries too hard to render the work club friendly, with lyrics promising to find [her] trophy tonight, and lamenting her waiting for the grass to grow / waiting for the hustle and flow.

Kibby doesn’t find much else in “Mountaineer,” carrying the track with sustained vocals and fuzzier synths that conjure the same sounds pioneered by School of Seven Bells on Alpinisms. Even the main chorus, with its groping for “teen dreams,” feels more like a shallow nod to Beach House than an thoughtful statement.

It’s a shame that the substance of Kibby’s work here doesn’t match the impressive production. Even on “Oljato” — an ode to American folk chants and the EP’s most underwhelming and underdeveloped track — the resolution of every instrument and the coloring of every voice is worthy of any Brian Eno or Nico Muhly arrangement.

Thankfully, there is a bright spot on the EP in the first track, “Cannibal Love.” The song seems to have been recorded beneath liters of salt water; the Gothic choir samples, digital pipes and percussion, and Kibby’s densely layered, almost smothered vocals create something truly chilling. More than anything, the track feels like a relic from an age where death came at the end of a spear, resurrected now in digital shades.

The track exceeds the rest of the disc not only in its relaxing instrumentation, but also in its electronic take on the soundtracks of sea epics and their ancient, atmospheric echoes — also giving the name of Kibby’s project some weight. The repeated vocal and guitar samples, set against a backdrop of instruments typically found in a 19th century orchestra as opposed to a modern studio, works far better than it should.

This kind of experimentation has kept the genre alive and beating for the past decade. Though Kibby’s track is a lone gem among mediocrity, its creation shows that she has the talent to create stronger albums. If Kibby chooses to follow the emotional hurricane of this track farther down the road, White Sea could truly become a name to watch.

Sadly, the domination of the EP by more malnourished fare is an ill omen for the growth of Kibby’s new outfit. Whether her diverse but uninspired borrowing from other acts springs from nostalgia or irony — both unadvisable — it remains to be seen whether the winter electronic scene that she heralds is in for a stagnant tide or a more compelling squall.