Hannah Fury

Lone Scar Great ****

Self-styled Trauma Queen Hannah Fury has at last shuffled
off her musical slumber. It’s been six long years since her
unsettling debut album, "The Thing That Feels," and three
since her last EP. What has she been doing? Well, not
losing one iota of her touch for a start; "Subterfuge" is
the most sinister thing to come out of Texas since the
Bush Administration, and all the better for it. Kicking off
with a deliciously subversive, almost perverse take on
The Turtles’ 1969 hit "You Showed Me," Fury teasingly
twists and plays with the melody and phrasing to great
effect. And while it’s not as nakedly ambitious or
successful as her gloriously gut-wrenching cover of
ABBA’s "The Winner Takes It All" (from 2001’s sublime
"Meathook" EP), it sets up "Subterfuge"’s overarching
"love me or else" theme very nicely indeed.

The sheer intensity of "My Next Victim" continues this
motif, with hell hath no fury lyrics like “you don’t want
none of my sugar / you just want that skanky snatch,
no offense to her” delivered with an eerie and unwavering
focus, its very matter-of-factness recalling Lisa Germano’s
"…A Psychopath" reverse engineered and seen through an
opiate haze. The fabulously titled "Girls That Glitter Love
The Dark" is equally impressive with its "From The Choirgirl
Hotel"-era Tori Amos flourishes and lush, hypnotic multi-
tracked vocals. Illuminating couplets like “girls that glitter
defile hope / we think that love is just tightening that sad
little rope” languish in the mix with a general air of self-
destructive obsession.

But perhaps the finest distillation of Fury’s particular brand
of musical malaise is the multimedia track, "Carnival Justice
(The Gloves Are Off) Part II." Whether heard alone or in
tandem with Chris Ohlson’s creepy video featuring a pair
of custom-made marionettes (The Queen of Hearts and
Anathema Rose to their friends), it’s an undeniably spine-
tingling experience. So precisely layered are the distorted,
whispery vocals, it’s almost as if she were singing in
parseltongue. Needless to say, it’s the kind of song that
the religious far right would love to play backwards in fear
(hope?) of finding an ode to the devil. Which would be
rather silly regardless, because they would then miss out
on some of Fury’s best writing to date — “if you think you
scored, your vision must be blurred / welcome one and all
to the Theatre of the Absurd / mmmmmy heart is like the
Moulin Rouge / all lit up in subterfuge” — with all its Jean
Genet conjuring dramaturgy.

Whether or not Fury intends a literal interpretation of
"A Latch To Open"’s closing sound effect of an emancipated
bird fleeing its prison (and I’m inclined to believe she
doesn’t), it’s tempting to see it as something symbolic.
A brusque farewell to writer’s block, perhaps. For as
wonderful as this enchanting EP undoubtedly is, it’s
ostensibly a prelude to a far greater prize; that long-
awaited full-length coming later this year. Amen!
- Alan Pedder

Hannah Fury is an Austin treasure, a keyboard-wielding enchantress that drifts through much the same mists as Kate Bush, but with greater mystery and melody. "Subterfuge" is the latest fairy to escape her ring. "Je Taime," "A Latch to Open" and "Girls That Glitter Love the Dark" (best Fury song title ever) are glimmering, ethereal things, like the golden sparkles in which Zeus would take form to seduce earthly maidens. The deceptively pretty "My Next Victim" is a great example of Ms. Fury's patented lovely creep-outs. "Carnival Justice (The Gloves Are Off) Part II" (also a video on the accompanying DVD) adds percussion and drive to swirling vocal overdubs that are the audio equivalent of wraiths filling the screen of a Tim Burton film. To top it off, the EP begins with an unusual but drop, um, dead gorgeous take on the Byrds' "You Showed Me." Six songs, as lusciously lovely as they are, is a bit of a tease. Here's hoping that soon Hannah Fury will remove the corset and show us everything she's got. - Michael Toland