A Sweeping Curve of Sound

One of the more creative and vibrant musical voices to wander through the “darker” musical genres has been Jessie Evans. A founding member of the goth noise-punk combo Subtonix (under the pseudonym ‘Jessie Trashed’), she went on to form the brilliantly dark-electro group The Vanishing (who released two great full-length albums) and curate a scene-snapshot of the then-flourishing underground of darkly-tinged San Francisco/West Coast bands entitled “Nostalgia Del Buio” (featuring bands like Veronica Lipgloss and the Evil Eyes, Black Ice, Sixteens, and Glass Candy) before re-locating to Berlin.

Jessie Evans with Toby Dammit

Once in Berlin Evans hooked up with Bettina Koster from the seminal German post-punk band Malaria to release a full-length album under the name Autonervous, an experimental new-wave-jazz hybrid. Now working solo, Evans is exploring a percussion-heavy jazz sound that recalls some work by The Creatures, and leaves much of her earlier new-wave inflections behind (though still includes hints of experimental and some early industrial influences).

While the sound has changed, the core musical creativity shines through on the live clips and early demos posted to her MySpace page, and this could very well be the permutation that wins her a wider acclaim for her talents (much as peers like The Chromatics and Glass Candy have). In any event, I’m very much looking forward to the new album (which features contributions from Budgie, Toby Dammit, and Chloe Griffin), so I can catch up once more with Jessie Evans.