How many East Coasters does it take to programme a drum machine? Erm in the case of
Cat Martino's contribution to
Weathervane Music's latest
Shaking Through compilation, I Promise, that'd be two and they'd happen to be a certain Sufjan and Chris Powell of Philadelphian experi
mentalists Man Man. If
the Stevens-featuring single Yr Not Alone from Martino's forthcoming full-length of the same name signalled an approach to the histrionic grandiosity of
The Age of Adz then I Promise conversely harks back to somewhere solemn; solitary; sometime in '97. Sarah McLachlan's
Surfacing was (allegedly – my years then numbered not quite nine) ubiquitous stateside and it's a similarly robust yet ruminative foundational songsmithery upon which this one's constructed. Previous padrone Stevens warbles as though unworldly songbird in the backdrop, allowing Martino's gently scuffed vocal caress to saunter to the fore with
the unassuming seduction of another past employer.
