Miso Extra – Earcandy

The indie catch-22 is as follows: you want your favorite artist’s favorite artist to chase the bag to artistic heaven, yet in doing so, they jeopardise the quality of the art that drew them acclaim to begin with. This paradox is only true for morons, get a grip; if Lingua Ignota released a corporate blockbuster Reggaeton album tomorrow, but she got a million dollar check, I’d raise a cheers to that abomination. It would be my Songs in the Key of Life. Re: Miso Extra. EP after EP of shimmering, jubilant art pop, spanning years of artistic growth, and now she’s ready for someone’s radio. The hinge here is to only give enough of yourself away that an exec’s appetite is whetted (not fulfilled), a line Miso Extra may as well have drawn herself.

Earcandy as a debut is an anti-introduction; part of the joy of this project is tracing her more experimental edges into the gleefully watered down portions of it we’re served. You like that idea she had on that one track? There’s an EP of it in her back catalogue, go fetch. Given that “artistically uncompromised” and “big-budget” usually mix like saltwater and compound fractures, I will accept a world in which Miso Extra isn’t necessarily making the music I’d envisioned from her, but is allowed to make music in a larger capacity nonetheless. Sticking to your artistic guns? In this economy?

Listen To: Earcandy, Love Train, POP