My Bubba - Big Bad Good

Die erste Vorladung (VIII)

Personalien:

Hinter dem Bandnamen My Bubba stecken die aus Schweden stammende My Larsdotter (Gesang, Zither) und die Isländerin Guðbjörg Tómasdóttir (Gesang, Gitarre). Kennen gelernt haben sich die beiden, als Bubba auf eine Annonce antwortete, um ein Zimmer in Mys Appartement in Kopenhagen zu mieten. Kurz nach dem Einzug begann das gemeinsamen Musizieren. 

Tathergang:

Zunächst war noch eine Dritte mit im Bunde und als My Bubba & Mi erschien 2010 das Album "How It's Done In Italy". Nach "Goes Abroader" (2014) folgte nun das in Zusammenarbeit mit Shahzad Isamaily (Will Oldham, Sam Amaidon) in Brooklyn entstandene "Big Bad Good", das zwar 11 Songs beinhaltet, aber nur 33 Minuten läuft. 

Plädoyer:

Freak Folk, New Weird Americana, Psych Folk... Begriffe gab und gibt es viele, die den verschrobenen, zerbrechlich anmutenden, bisweilen schrägen Folk von Künstlerinnen wie CocoRosie, Jana Hunter oder Joanna Newsom zu fassen versuchen. Für My Bubba, die Stille, ihre Stimmen, gezupfte Zither und gestreichelte Gitarre mit Folk, Blues, Gospel und Soul kombinieren, dürfen sie wieder Verwendung finden.

Zeugen:

The fact that there is minimal instrumentation in each song shows the vocal prowess of both Tómasdóttir and Larsdotter and how their voices perfectly mimic each other. Personally, it is kind of confusing because you can’t tell the voices apart, but there is a certain charm to the simplicity of their duets. The choice to focus on the voice and lyrics was definitely beneficial for My Bubba, as the lyrics really tell a story in each song, ranging from morose to cheerful all in the same album. On a very basic level, Big Bad Good is a quiet but pleasing album. Once you dig deeper, you really feel the full brevity of its poetry.

(Slug Magazine)

Big Bad Good opens with the airy, minimalistic title track that introduces themes of longing, loss and ancestry with lyrical nods to songwriters such as Paul Simon and Bob Dylan. The remaining songs follow suit with light and playful production as their delicate, almost identical, voices unify to produce a resounding after-effect.

(American Songwriter)

Big Bad Good leaves listeners feeling like they’re processing a lot emotionally, but the boney arrangements of the songs give you the impression that the motivation for doing so is almost being extracted from nothingness. That’s not a dig, either. Musically, My Bubba forges their own specific and extremely sparse path while forgoing the dreariness that unfocused minimalism facilitates. Everything the duo builds up, they do so subtly and with purpose. The electric piano on “ET” pulsates while glueing together the song’s whirring and almost improvisational layers. Soulfully letting out the words “I feel like ET yearning, burning up from within,” the song is evocative of wanting to close the distance between you and your core essence.

(Paste Magazine)

Indizien und Beweismittel:

Ortstermine:
31.08.16 Berlin (zusammen mit The Weather Station und Missincat)

Urteile:
Nun sind die werten Richter gefragt...