Augouti Music

Rating: 5 out of 5
Contributer: Janine Zarate

I would describe Petracovich's debut release Blue Cotton Skin as an amazingly beautiful, fragile, airy and highly creative work of art. As a whole, Blue Cotton Skin sounds like everything I like in bands fronted by men and what I hardly hear from bands fronted by women. There's a lot happening on Blue Cotton Skin, and from the first listen, you can quickly tell the artists who created this CD have an appreciation of music and for their listeners.

Petracovich is fronted by Jessica Peters, an incredible female musician. I guess it would be fair to say that Petracovich is Jessica Peters, although she did work with some others on this release. The name of the band stems from Peters' grandfather's name, a man whom she shares her love of music with. Peters has a little bit of an innocence to her that is quickly smothered by a sensuality that seeps into each song. The listener is never quite sure what to make of the singer, which, to me, is a good thing.

I liken Petracovich to Denali, solely based on vocal similarities. Blue Cotton Skin is what Denali could have created if they had stopped to think about creating a more unique sound. Other than that, I really can't compare Peters as a singer with anyone else. The music style is very lo-fi, dreamy and electronic, if you will, with a lot of interesting samplings and noises that come together nicely. Blue Cotton Skin is a release that artists dream of, where each track is interesting and leads the listener to want to hear more. I would think hours and hours of work went into making this release as close to perfection as any artist could.

"Driving Home" is one of my favorites, and it begins with Peters' singing and playing of acoustic guitar. This would be fine for the whole song; her vocals match perfectly with the acoustic slowness of the track; however, about halfway through "Driving Home," the mood changes. Added to the song is a funky piano, bass with drums, some keyboard samplings and Peters' vocals picking up the tempo to match. The mood returns to the beginning, with some of the accompanying instruments that came in the middle sticking around. Not too many artists can pull off singing with only an acoustic guitar as the main instrument and make it interesting, but Peters shows us what she's worth and then throws in some artistic creativity to show us even more. It's subtle, and I always think subtle is nice.

A perfect example of Petracovich, in all its lo-fi glory, is "Nighttime". There's plenty of warbling samples, steady drumbeats, a hint of bass and Peters' vocals changing in texture and tone throughout the song. This song is laden with a tenseness that I just can't quite grasp because this feeling seems to flicker on and off during the song. Perhaps it's Peters' vocals that cause this feeling because they are extremely gentle in comparison with the song's tone.

Another track to check out is "Company". This is a slow, spacy track. Peters' vocals are the center, with the music branching out from her vocals. The vocals are just incredibly affecting and sad. I really like how there's just a hint of instruments and samples throughout the song because "Company" is really all about the vocal strength.

A bit peppier of a track is "Bird's in Flight." It even includes some well-placed handclaps. This song has a sort of "rollicking" sound to it -- with the help of piano work and Peters' own backup vocals. It's a nice track to throw in since most of the songs have a more serious edge to them. "Bird's in Flight" would definitely be the standout radio track.

In between the vocal tracks are two amazingly beautiful instrumentals, "Coyote and the Moon" and "Rosebud". One is essentially all piano, and the other features a more ambient, spacy sound. Both are a nice treat. It would be interesting to hear more instrumentals from Petracovich.

The only unfortunate thing about Petracovich is that you can't buy it in major stores -- yet. This is the type of music that should be played on the radio and promoted like crazy. If you're interested in buying a copy of Blue Cotton Skin, you should visit Red Buttons Records' web site for further information. I would definitely recommend doing so.