Tin Cup Prophette
Tin Cup Prophette is Amanda Kapousouz and she is from Athens, Georgia. Her sound consists mainly of minimalistic looping of her violin accompanied by other interesting instruments. When I read her bio and description of her music, I became almost too excited to listen to the album hoping that she might be the female equivalent of Andrew Bird or Final Fantasy. Well, not really at all. Her violin arrangements are a bit more distorted than the other two, and much more lush in nature. Andrew Bird’s sound is much more crisp and focuses on a balance between vocals and instruments so you can hear everything. Final Fantasy is more upbeat in a dark way and the looping is much more evident. With Kapousouz’s music, we find a much calmer style that evelopes the listener gradually throughout the album rather than song by song.
I had trouble liking her album Liar and the Thief at first simply because there wasn’t much to it when compared to Bird or Owen Pallette’s Final Fantasy, but that’s not exactly fair to compare her music to theirs since they’re pretty different. Once I was more in the mood for calmer music, I popped in Amanda’s album again and loved it. Some albums take multiple listens to find you in the right mood to really enjoy the music. This has happened countless times with me and music and it’s no different in this case. You don’t see me putting any of Godspeed’s albums on a whim. I have to be in the mood. The same goes for M83, Mogwai, Bonnie “Prince” Billy and so many others. But when I do feel it, those albums are some of the best.
So Tin Cup Prophette may still fall in that “I have to be in the mood” category for now, but it’s slowly growing on me. One thing’s for sure though, the song “Going Numb”, which was on my latest Perch Mix is easily one of the best songs of the year and if her next album is more crisp, upbeat stuff like that, you’ll find me talking about that album all year long. For now we’ve got Liar and the Thief. A calm, minimalistic album full of looped violin, dark melodies, and Amanda’s haunting voice. Check her out at Bonnaroo this week.
Going Numb [mp3]
All is Lost [mp3]
Speak or Spill Down [mp3]
This makes me want to see her live
Tin Cup Prophette – 80 Days live
[youtube XQ9gCsoON9s]
