It's All For You: Scout Niblett
Posted by: zac | From: November 02, 2004
Scout Niblett plays the drums like a third seat percussionist in 7th grade drum jazz ensemble. Which is to say, pretty poorly. And for a woman in her thirties, she could pretty easily pass for a junior high student. She's small, has a penchant for ratty, little girl wigs, and bellows like a kid on the playground. But it's little Emma Niblett who might just be the one to save the floundering ovarian-angst genre.
Growing up in Staffordshire, England, Emma Niblett moved to Nottingham when she was 19 to hit art school. The years between this and her new-found career nearly a decade later are relatively unaccounted from across the worldwide webulus, but somewhere between then and now Emma began going by the name of a character in To Kill a Mockingbird, and writing songs. Songs that became a record. A very good record.
2001's sweet heart fever introduced Niblett's distinctive vision--a fittingly fevered stammer of the felt and frantic. Which sounds like a big mess of journalistic prose. What I mean is, Scout makes music that actually feels like feelings do, knotted and nonsensical and dramatic and true. With her rudimentary drumming and big muff riffage, it's nearly impossible to tear Niblett's voice away from dry and rid of me era PJ Harvey (people who deny the similarity aren't fooling anyone), but the comparison is one of spirit as much as sound. And as those records are easily among the best of the last decade, Niblett is certainly in good company. SHF was followed up by the I Conjure Series ep, and later I Am, a remarkably cohesive effort.
Scout Niblett is one of the very few independent artists at present that actually seems to be cultivating a compelling persona with some staying power. Though the scope of her work is as of yet very limited, it's open-ended in such a way that keeps my eyes trained. I care about her and her work. I have an investment in it in a way I do with very few new artists. And if that don't qualify her for Greatest Band of All Time, I can't imagine what would.
I've heard two of her songs.
Both of them are SUPER.
Truly.
Posted by: J-Rad at November 2, 2004 06:12 PM
well i guess we can see what all the excitermins is about at berbattiis on the 17th with debwener
meaning steve will go to berbatiis three nights in a row
jesus
wheres the gbv Gboat btw?
Posted by: Adam Forkner at November 3, 2004 09:13 AM
The first Scout Niblett song I heard was 'Miss My Lion' on Sweet Fever Heat. I instantly fell for it. To be honest, listening to the rest of her albums was a bit of a disappointment because of my cat-power-esque expectations for her sound... but after a few listens, I started to appreciate it. Now I can't seem to get enough.
Go figure.
Posted by: Johnny Fontaine at October 23, 2005 11:07 PM
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i second this. big time. big time.
Posted by: flint at November 2, 2004 03:50 PM