Overview

Sylvan Esso, formed in 2013, is a duet hailing from North Carolina, USA, consisting in Amelia Meath (from Mountain Man) and Nick Sanborn (from Megafauna).

Album Score
Sylvan Esso 7.5

Sylvan Esso

Sylvan Esso, their debut album, was released in 2014. The entirety of the album is a playful mixture of Meath’s impeccable vocals and Sanborn’s cerebral electronics.

Hey Mami, the opening track, is an acapella choral arrange that mutates into a blend of a la Burial hard-hitting bass drums; in Dreamy Bruises, Meath’s vocals and Sander’s samples not only coexist, but talk between them, and in the process construct a litanic pop song; Could I Be sees a further vocal/electronic integration into a tense nudge, displaying a la Chromatics vocal manipulation.

At their most cohesive, they create atmospheric ditties. Dress features tribal-like vocal manipulation; Coffee, slightly desynchronized, is perhaps the clearest display of Sanborn’s dreamy yet energetic electronics.

Their ballads are the weakest point of the album. Wolf is very reminiscent of It’s Blitz-era Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Uncatena builds up into a disappointing chorus. Come Down, however, is a deviation, a stripped down ballad showcasing Meath at her most fragile, and Sanders standing back in awe.

At their best, Sylvan Esso create perhaps the most energetic, fluent, and hypnotic songs of the decade. H.S.K.T takes their synergic duality into the dancefloor, while Play It Right (originally a remix by Sanders of a Meath song) is an ecosystem in which Sanders’ dubstep-influenced electronics coexist with Meath’s vocals.

The dialectics between synths and vocals are strong in this one. The struggle between them is very clear, and is perhaps the clearest in song choruses (Could I Be, Hey Mami). A creative approach to how synth-pop had been evolving since the 1980s, a departure of classic a la drum n bass pop ditties, Sylvan Esso take on an innovative route for the genre. Really digging this one.