There have always been artists who straddle the fine line between experimentalism and a pop sensibility. As soon as I put on the latest EP by Evelyn Morris (aka Pikelet), a whole list of these musical tightrope walkers popped into my head – from Alastair Galbraith to Danielle Dax, Legendary Pink Dots to Robert Wyatt, Scott Walker to Lida Husik.

What unites all these musicians is that they are so immensely talented, they could conceivably conquer the pop charts with a tune they wrote between making a cup of coffee in the morning and hanging up the washing. Alas, they choose not to. They’re not even on the same page as the rest of the alternative music scene. They are eccentric geniuses without having to contrive to be quirky or different like the rest of us stragglers.

Morris is such a character. She’s a multi-instrumentalist, justifiably revered for her explosive drumming in True Radical Miracle and Baseball, who in her spare time fucks around with loop pedals, writes stunning melodies, and can afford the luxury of dividing her musical output as Pikelet into categories of more or less “accessible” releases.

This EP sits somewhere between her celebrated debut on Chapter Music and the improvisational soundscapes of ‘Pre-Flight Jitters’, released on the boutique noise label Sabbatical Records. The six short songs on ‘Not So Still’ were recorded at various times and locations throughout last year but, taken as a group, they represent a coherent cycle. There is a fragility in the sparse instrumentation and the loping, see-sawing rhythms. Underlying this is a toughness that reminded me, in spirit, of some of the exotic musical constructions the aforementioned Danielle Dax created on her early ’80s albums Pop Eyes and Jesus Egg That Wept.

Less reliant on the loop pedals that were central to Pikelet’s early work, these vignettes are constructed around organic percussion, minimal keyboard and synth parts and melodic vocal lines which exude an almost naive charm. Touches of non-western rhythms and melodies steer Pikelet away from the white bread world of indie pop, but it’s not exactly world music either.

Frankly, I could have done with an album twice as long, because once immersed in the world of Pikelet, it’s not a place I want to leave in a hurry. With Pikelet now expanded into a four-piece band, I’m not sure if this group of songs will be part of their live set, but in itself, this EP is a miniature masterpiece.

by René Schaefer