Dieter Schoon: 'Mary Jane'
Sometimes it’s nice to approach something completely brand new to you. Whether it’s watching a film you’ve never watched, playing a game you’ve never played or – as is the case here – listening to something you’ve never listened to. I had no idea who Dieter Schoon were until I volunteered to review their new single ‘Mary Jane’ – I can tell you nothing about their past, little about their future and even less about their musical background. What I know now though is that they’re a pretty decent outfit and certainly one worth checking out when their tour brings them to London later this month.
‘Mary Jane’ is at first psychedelic blend of folks and blues, pinned down by a sumptuous layered vocal that battles for superiority with a moaning trumpet (Ok, it could be a trombone, maybe even a bugle or a tuba – I was always a strings man), above a sort of tribal drumming that almost sounds like it doesn’t belong. In fact, all of those ingredients I mentioned don’t together inspire much do they? And yet they do actually work. This song doesn’t have a three chord chorus you can sing along to, it doesn’t have a nice guitar hook – it just has a collection of well performed individual melodies that both compliment and contrast each other at various points to create this hazy, mixed-up 1960’s sound; imagine sitting in a cellar bar with nothing but candles and smoke and some bearded bloke telling you about the good old days and this is probably playing in the background.
And then, almost out of nowhere, the song shifts pattern without care nor warning. It runs away, only pausing to allow the vocal to remind you that you haven’t accidentally hit skip – the last minute or so of the song are even more psychedelic, even more ad hoc than those dulcet sounds that occupied the first couple, like something from Radiohead’s Amnesiac but with a lo-fi edge.
For once I’m kind of at a loss here – I don’t know how to quantify this music or how to justify its position on my new playlist. It’s just good. In a years time I don’t know if I’ll still be listening to this record but, for now at least, ‘Mary Jane’ will do nicely.
7/10
Words: Benjamin Coley
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