Aside from a newborn and an overlooked body of work, Mary Lorson and Billy Cote share a passion for film. After their band, Madder Rose, died from a bad case of under-appreciation in 1999, they began to compose music for motion pictures whenever they weren't wandering through each other's solo efforts. Lorson pinched the soft underbelly of jangle-pop with her project Saint Low while Cote's "The Jazz Cannon" set its sights on sequencers and samples. They scored several indie films during this time, including an HBO documentary on photographer Sally Mann. Lorson was particularly inspired by screen music's emphasis on mood over lyrics. Being a vocalist, she says that the loose, instrumental format was liberating, since there was never a need to "get to the chorus."
"Piano Creeps" is a collection of these cinematic ditties. Here violins, Moogs and spare beats roll downhill at varying speeds, while tweaked guitars and ivory keys are picked, plunked and tinkled leisurely yet deliberately to create sounds that are slow-soaked in ambience.
Aside from the title track, "Piano Creeps" is not that creepy. The audible sighs and cavernous reverb on "Newfield Baptist Church" and "King Brothers" may have an eerie air, but it comes across more sad than spooky. On the whole, the album rarely steers toward any strong emotions. Rather, these tracks stretch out in the back seat and stare out the window while you do the driving. Sci-fi effects and wispy Latin rhythms make "Che" sound like Antonio Carlos Jobim bought a summer home in the Outer Limits. Then the smoky guitar licks of "World's Fair" shuffle through the studio with sumptuous languor. This music is, in effect, aural wallpaper, however ornately designed (My Bloody Valentine, Vangelis, Portishead and REM seem to be scribbled in the corners). "Piano Creeps" won't blow your mind, but it will charge the air. As Lorson says on their Web site: "We always strive to enhance, not overpower a scene."