Still going largely unnoticed here in the US (get with it Pitchfork, CoS, SPIN, etc!), while publications like The Guardianand The Quietus swoon, singer-songwriter DM Stith’s side project with The Earlies’ member John Mark Lapham, The Revival Hour is every bit deserving of ink concerning their debut full-length Scorpio Little Devil. The record totes a more textured, dark, electro-pop-oriented tinge compared to Stith’s folkier solo work, but it drips with the sonic nuance and sweeping gloom that cloaked Stith’s haunting 2009 record Heavy Ghost, which was released on Sufjan Steven’s Asthmatic Kitty label.
Since releasing his solo record, Stith has toured with Sufjan during the indie cult-artist’s schizophrenic Age of Adz tour, playing piano and dancing his neon-tape-wearing-ass off for countless nights throughout Europe, North America, and Australia. While they've remained pretty tight since the tour, it took a while for Stith and Sufjan to eventually collaborate. They met by way of Shara Warden (My Brightest Diamond), another Asthmatic Kitty signee and Suf-friend who Stith had met when he moved from his native Buffalo to Brooklyn for a stint some years ago. Steven’s has supported Stith ever since, astutely describing the artist's music as being "light on its feet so as to defy gravity.”
Stith now happily works out of Rochester, and has come a long way to arrive at a comfortability with his creative endeavors (he’s also a very talented graphic designer) as the content of his songwriting has largely clung to an angst ridden religious upbringing--his family are Weslyan, a Christian sect that Stith desribed as a “cult-like environment” to grow up in. Stith has also recently come out that he is gay, and while he still loves and talks to his family, they have refused to accept this fact, and it has in turn carved-out a deep chasm between Stith and his childhood spirituality. But as one huddles before a deep and impressive canyon, Stith cannot help but be influenced by all the hues and colors of Biblical and supernatural imagery of his past.
All of this built-up angst seems to finally be released via Scorpio, as it wastes no time exploring images of trepidation with the lush and serpentine opening track “Control”. Stith’s vocals waft over Lapham’s folk-tronic instrumentation as he coos, “Struggle for my own control / I want out, I want out.” Stith’s lyrics are unswerving and declarative, but they remain ever-poetic and shrouded in opaque images and meaning.
“Hold Back” revels in Stith and Lapham’s love of 50s-era soulful rock, as Stith’s piano rippled vocals send chills. “I am the loneliest climber of them all” is definitely one of the more memorable lyrics on the record. “Pyre” is where the album grows darker. The track cuts to the bone with writhing guitar riffs and heart-wrenching percussion as a choir of phantoms wrap around Stith’s weight-of-the-world mantra: “Baby you’re stuck in your little game / but open your eyes to the sight and see / nobody else is praying, nobody else is praying.” “Riverbody” is a languid and effervescent masterpiece that could easily be played solo acoustic, while “Run Away” is an electro-pop oriented ditty, with washes of crisp percussion and reverb-drenched vocals. Scorpio is an album that is continually digging. It wields a deep-rooted passion that's on hands and knees, sweating, and tunneling both sonically and lyrically, shaping itself as a wellspring in a drought-ridden indie landscape. Stith and Lapham have crafted a near flawless ten-track album that takes an experimental approach to older soul and pop music. The Revival Hour are certainly channeling a hip, nostalgic era of music, but not like most of their surf-rock, neo-doo-wop contemporaries. Instead, they've upended the dream-pop format with bubbling, soulful vocals, convoluted percussion, and shadowy guitar and synth that get past all the indie fluff and directly to the core of expression. Grade: A-
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