The design motto “Less is more” is often credited to the eminent architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. A German-born immigrant, van der Rohe adopted this motto to reflect his minimalist style and in part because his English wasn’t very strong—it was simple to say. It’s a nice little insight and an apt introduction for Emily Cross, whose debut EP Magnetic Current is incredibly minimal and simple yet much more than the sum of its parts.

The easiest comparison one might give is the vocal timbre and darkness of Chan Marshall (Cat Power) paired with the limited structures found in early Mirah records, but even that isn’t fair. Cross, who goes by the moniker Cross Record, is working in her own amplitude. Through her sound and excellent lyrics, she is a creator of hallowed ground and saccharine hope. Her music, at its tense moments, is like running through a darkened wood and like watching a day burn off when placid.

Within this record are a host of strings, clarinets, singings bowls, and other acoustic instrumentation, but it’s really just a dressing for Cross’s gospel-styled, perfectly reverbed vocals, which are so captivating the silences feel like vacuums and you sometimes worry the record has stopped playing for a moment. Credit for this effect is partly due to Ben Babbit of This is Cinema, who played on and helped mix Magnetic Current.

If anything impresses me as much as Cross’s sound, it’s her lyrics. Take album centerpiece “Shark in the Ocean,” (listen below) where she cleverly turns a children’s proverb in on itself: “Feel it in your bones. It comes like sticks and stones. On a night like this you really got to be brave.” The conceit, of course, is that words can be the most damaging, and sometimes you cannot protect yourself. In other songs such as “Slow,” it’s evocative phrasing that draws you: “Slow. Slow as the mountains move. Slow is my love for you.”

Cross has a genuine talent for conjuring so much with so little and putting you in a place that is out of time. I customarily might say this debut shows promise of what’s to come. But that, in a sense, undermines the fact that Cross has already arrived. Magnetic Current is a complete portrait. And instead, I’ll conclude then by saying I look forward the next odyssey Emily Cross has planned for us. Whatever it is, it’s bound to be intrepid.

Magnetic Current will be available to purchase on Tuesday, April 19, at Another New Calligraphy.

Cross Record — Shark in the Ocean

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CROSS RECORD
Record Release Show
2:00 p.m. Saturday, April 23
Saki Records, 3716 W. Fullerton Ave
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