Still Corners Takes Deep Dive at Lost Lake

DREAMY SYNTH POP MEETS TWIN PEAKS

The London-based synthpop group Still Corners has embarked on their “Dead Blue” tour to promote their newest album Dead Blue which was released on Sept. 16. With a stop at Denver’s Lost Lake Lounge on Oct. 1, the group was accompanied by Denver locals Spacesuit for Indians and Los Angeles’s dreamy L.A. Witch.

Still Corners is a musical project led by vocalist Tessa Murray and multi-instrumentalist and producer Greg Hughes along with a drummer who performs with them. The small, dimly-lit stage was set up with a large projection screen, an assortment of pedals, two small electronic keyboards, and a laptop. In this electronic age, the group would have been assumed to rely heavily on the use of technology, but the accompaniment of mysterious guitar chords and shy drum beats held the group in a harmonious balance between instrumentation and the use of 21st century musical robotics.

The intimate dive was awash with a lively and restless crowd. Vitalized from the captivating brood of L.A. Witch, Still Corners performance was initiated by a steady beat sampled from their laptops with spectral and peculiar scenes from 1950s and 60s films spliced in between each projector screen behind them. The audience entered a somewhat invigorated trance once Murray began to sing.

The duo has a wide range of songs that still adhere to their own shadowy style, still very dreamy but some are certainly more sanguine than other songs on the album. They have a keen ability to turn the audience from their hypnotized state to writhing on the dance floor. Transitioning into their track “Don’t Fall In Love,” Murray’s voice acted as a soothing sort of background noise among the arrangement of guitars, drum beats, and keyboards, provoking the audience from ruminative state to vivacious grooving.

The most bizarre and fitting comparison one can make to the stylistic aesthetic and sound of Still Corners is as if MTV made a really shitty modern re-make of Twin Peaks but the soundtrack was really, really good. Murray’s voice is reminiscent of a 1990s Julee Cruise, the infamous crooner in the Road House of Twin Peaks , as well as the voice behind the theme song, with a modern, pop-style twist. Still Corners ebbs and flows between the light and the dark, some place that is eerie but all too inviting.

The alluring aspect of Still Corners is not only that each and every member is very talented within in their own right, but they work together in ethereal harmony. The lasting effect of the group did not rely solely on Murray’s airy and celestial voice nor the use of technology in their music. But centered on creating a cohesion of vocals, electronics, and analogue instruments in an unsuspected unity.