Nite Jewel - One Second Of Love

In his Guardian Music Blog post ‘Why music-makers need to get out of the bedroom and off the internet’, Alex Macpherson pours scorn onto the idea of the critically-acclaimed ‘bedroom musician’. According to him, the advances in technology that have led artists away from the studio and into their own laptops has made for a ‘new wave of vaguely miserable, web-friendly music for loners’ and that ‘if this limp, tepid, navel-gazing is the future of music, humanity may as well press rewind and unevolve back to quivering, helpless blobs’. Seems a little extreme. The main criticisms leveled at this new breed by Macpherson seem to centre on the idea that their music is lifeless, unexciting and excessively insular.

Nite Jewel’s Ramona Gonzales seems almost the archetype of what our friend Macpherson maligns. Her debut full-length Good Evening was an understated combination of the more soulful end of '80s/'90s pop and the darker end of disco, channeled through the warm glow of cheap, lofi recording equipment. With titles such as ‘Am I Real?’ and ‘Forget You & I’ in her repertoire, she wouldn’t be fooling anyone if she claimed her music wasn’t focused upon herself, but what artist could ever claim otherwise? Nevertheless, there was a joy to Good Evening and indeed the Am I Real? EP that followed it, a sense of intimacy that made it an endearing and enduring listen.

The progression Gonzales has made from Good Morning to One Second of Love is starkly evident. These tracks are muscular, and by her standards polished, but still retain the same smoky atmosphere of previous releases. The title track is a case in point. Moodier and more mechanical than any of her previous work, it sees the first steps of her earlier work breaking into new, more confident strides. Elsewhere, further experiments in style and arrangement pop up; from the tingling chimes of ‘Memory Man’ to the creaking 12-string that punctuates the usual synth-and-vocal set up on ‘Unearthly Delights’, with enthralling results. Unexptectedly, several points of this record recall the recent, dub and bass-inspired works of such contemporary UK producers as SBTRKT and Darkstar; proof that Nite Jewel’s focus isn’t just directed on mere revivalism.

This is certainly a dark record. Less party music than something you spin when you have a few friends round, or alone. In that sense, Macpherson is right. But this is an album that sees Ramona Gonzales buzzing with the joy of progression, and experimentalism, and a real joy for both her music and the music of her peers and forebears. Is One Second of Love insular? At times. Is it unexciting? Hardly. Is it lifeless then? Not at all. It breathes with a life of its own. It’s human. Flawed, complex but often beautiful, and well worth your time, whether you’re a quivering, helpless blob or not.