It’s stunning, the difference between a singer like Jesy Fortino, who writes and sings her own songs under the name Tiny Vipers, and a singer like Jessica Simpson or even Amy Winehouse.
Everything on Tiny Vipers is raw and stark, from the guitar picking to the quiet singing. It’s so different from a big-selling release, on which a team of songwriters, producers, and backup singers add embellishment to a solo singer’s voice. It’s unbelievable that all of it comes out of the same industry at the same time.
The new Tiny Vipers disc, Hands Across the Void, is the kind of album that slowly unfolds; each listen is a little more haunting than the last. Fortino has clearly developed a beautiful relationship with her guitar over the years. It weaves in and out of her vocals like another voice might if she were in a band.
On “Swastika,” an eleven-minute meditation on choices, the guitar expresses the anger that doesn’t come through in Fortina’s voice, which remains distant. Both her voice and the guitar are a bit more playful on “Forest on Fire” and “Shipwreck,” a pared-down sea shanty. Her voice recalls Kristin Hersh on these tracks — restrained but with a bite.
According to Fortina’s label, Sub Pop, she doesn’t consider herself a folk musician, even though she’s an acoustic singer/songwriter. Perhaps to back this up or perhaps as a joke, when you open the disc in iTunes, the genre listed is metal. The sensibility is indeed metal. Her mood is fairly grim, but Fortina refrains from shrieking.
– Lori Barrett
Tiny Vipers (Sub Pop)