Cameron Mesirow a.k.a. Glasser

Lots of pop music deals with sex, but few records drip with the sustained sensuality of Ring, the debut album by Glasser. On this electro-pop project, singer-songwriter Cameron Mesirow howls, yelps, chants, and slithers over a Come Hither soundscape of electronic drums and synthesizer drones.  With melodies that blend blues ballads, exotic eroticism, and sultry spirituality, these songs lead straight to the bedroom.

That’s not to say that Mesirow comes across as a sexpot or man candy. As a singer and lyricist, she conveys the confidence of Annie Lennox, the angst of Sarah MacLaclan, and the quirkiness of Bjork. The way she sings her own backing vocals gives the album a dreaminess with echoes of Enya. Ultimately, Glasser blurs the boundaries between pop and New Age, making the kind of music that might accompany a time lapse nature film of a flower as it blooms and decays. Ring is an album of aural aromatherapy that might come bundled with packets of herbal tea, bottles of essential oil, or scented candles.

Glasser, Apply

The multicultural trance aesthetic starts with the drums, which range from simple Four on the Floor beats to the polyrhythms associated with African music. While most instruments blend together into wash of sound, several songs feature the marimba, a cousin of the xylophone found in traditional music across Asia, Latin America, and Africa and embraced by rock musicians from Paul Simon to Jack White.  To ears accustomed to Western rock music, her minor key melodies and instrumental lines often sound imported from China,  Japan, and Indonesia.

Glasser, Glad

In most of the nine songs on Ring, Mesirow and her producers follow a formula: begin with sparse instrumentation,  usually drums and vocals, then add layers of synthesizers and multi-tracked voices that build toward a chaotic climax.  Few songs end on a definitive note or beat; instead they trail off in a post-coital flutter; it’s often a challenge to discern where one song ends and another begins. As a result, Ring sounds like a true album, from the tribal drums that opens the record to the baritone saxophone that ends the journey.

Glasser, Mirrorage

While many songs address lovers and the ideals of trust and faith,  Mesirow also celebrates Mother Nature, with references to fire and clouds, rivers and tides. This elemental simplicity comes across in song titles like “Glad,” “Clamour” and “Apply,” and choruses where Mesirow repeats a single word like “home” and “morning.” Mesirow pulls off the occasional poeticism, as when she calls a river a “beast with a watery hide.” For the most part, the lyrics take a back seat to the sounds she weaves with her voice and the music. Ultimately, Glasser seems less concerned with words than with feelings; Ring is a shimmering seduction in every sense of the word.

Keith Meatto is co-editor of Frontier Psychiatrist. He recently wrote about the new Sufjan Stevens album, The Age of Adz.

Glasser - Ring