MJ Guider
Precious Systems
KRANKY
7/10
For their full-length debut, New Orleans trio MJ Guider soundtrack a ghostly night on the town. Or at least that’s how it would seem. Precious Systems certainly resembles an eerie evening—one filled with echoing drones, lethargic beats, and mournful chants. These unsettling soundscapes are summoned from relatively sparse arrangements. The three-piece manages to weave dystopian dream-pop with only a Rickenbacker, Roland drum machine, and some sorcerous tape effects. It’s a process that results in nine tracks that utterly ache, seethe, and slither. On the album opener, “Lit Negative,” vocalist Melissa Guion asks, “Is there light on the inside?” It’s hard not to wonder the same, scratching at the dense surface of these songs to find some faint glimmer of hope.
The beauty of this release, however, lies in its capacity for starkness. Melodies are somewhat unwilling and nebulous. Single “Former Future Beings” almost seems to sonically implode, Guion’s vocals billowing with critical delay; these systems are precious for their devastating simplicity. Songs like “Triple Black” and “White Alsatian” resemble nostalgic nocturnes, their lyrics suggesting a severe listlessness, where, Guion sings, “Isolation takes over.” This inertia seems rather inextricable, but there is a bewitching catchiness about it all. Even the looped drones of “Evencycle” are captivating as they wrap themselves around a constant repetition of the phrase “in control.” The album closer,“Fiction Control,” might just be MJ Guider’s most accessible track, a tremendously austere approach to the shoegaze genre.
Overall, Precious Systems proceeds with glacial movements, evoking a gothic aesthetic that’s not altogether unique. In fact, there are times when the fledgling trio sound quite similar to other artists like Zola Jesus, Julianna Barwick, or even their labelmates, Grouper. But moments of likeness are generally brief, and throughout their debut effort, MJ Guider show they are capable of crafting a musical statement that is all their own.
