My Nature – I Am a Rocketship (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

Although their music has been described as “bedroom pop with an edge,” that does seem quite an understatement as I Am a Rocketship seem to draw together inspirations from far wider than the small, self-contained, world which such a phrase might imply. With a new album, Ghost Stories, on its way, My Nature comes on both as a calling card for the full release and a reminder of just how unique I Am a Rocketship is.

Whilst you can see the building blocks from which they build their music – driven, buzz-saw guitars, enchanting and wonderfully under played hooks, hip-rock beats and meandering, groovesome bass lines – as always it is the way that they put these together, the resulting sonic architecture rather than the raw materials it is fashioned from, which is all important. And even more important perhaps is the cement which holds everything together, and here, the binding ingredient is the most intangible; it is more about an atmosphere, a vibe, a brooding otherness which seems to be the bonding force.

And between it all L.E.Kippner weaves her spacious, almost staccato vocals, sometimes looking the listener strait in the eye, at other times acting as little more than sonic punctuation for the washes of fuzzy guitar and waves of trippy resonance which flow around her. And through all of these dark, yet deft, designs the song seems to beat with a pop heart too. Not the sort of pop you find in today’s charts but perhaps a pop spirit more in keeping with the 80’s post punk sonic playground and perhaps signalling where pop might go in the future. One can but hope!