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Ladies and gentlemen, hello and welcome back to Northwest Music Month 2016, where we’re featuring a different local band or artist for your music discovering pleasure every day during the month of June, to help ring in a summer of local music. Some days these artists could be a regional favorite that’s already got a following, and other days they could be a complete unknown that you’ve never heard of. We’ve featured a lot of out-there artists in this feature thus far, but few hold a candle to the experimentation of today’s act, Seattle duo Mississippi Jones.
Named for one half of the duo, Mississippi Jones, this outfit is one of the most creative and unique names in Seattle music. When the duo calls themselves “genre-warping,” they aren’t lying. The duo’s songs are driven heavily by synth flourishes and drum machines, with a wealth of organic instrumentation at their disposal as well. What vibe the band is going for really depends on the song you’re listening to. A song like “Thanks for Waiting” has a lo-fi psychedelic pop vibe to its vocals and sunny synth leads, while “Just a Game” borders harder on dream pop and downtempo territory. It feels pigeonholing to describe them as just “pop” or just “electronic;” the band clearly has so much more influence and creativity that they want to convey through these heady pieces.
Mississippi Jones has a whole host of releases under their belts; though they haven’t released a full-length record since 2014’s Unreleased, they’ve kept themselves busy with one solid EP after another for the past year or so. From their ambitious four-part Recourse: Elemental series of EPs released throughout 2015 and 2016 to their latest EP, the trippy and enveloping Continuum: I, Mississippi Jones has managed to do a lot with so little, developing a sound and artistic drive that other self-described experimentalists could only dream of.
Mississippi Jones’ music is much more than the sum of its parts. Their music has that sort of transcendental charm, the sort of music that doesn’t sound like it came from any particular part of the world, or from any particular world at all. Definitely give Mississippi Jones a shot; you might just walk away from their music enlightened.
You can follow Mississippi Jones on Facebook, Twitter, and through their own website, music.mississippijones.com/. Stream their music below.
