HAIL/SNAIL: How to Live with a Tiger
SEDCD025 | Released in 1998 | 500 copies | $10
Sedimental offers the re-release of the classic out of print collaborative recording How To Live With A Tiger between Susanne Lewis and Azalia Snail, known as HAIL/SNAIL. Recorded and released in ‘93 on the now defunct Funky Mushroom label, the album is a critically* lauded mini-masterpiece of idiosyncratic indie-pop psychedelia, featuring both artists unique approach to the song form while cross pollinating each other’s sound. Both Susanne and Azalia, long time residents of New York City, have forged distinct musical paths over the years. Suzanne, with her work with the legendary Thinking Plague in the early ‘80’s, her collaboration with Bob Drake as Hail over the past decade, and Kissyfur, her solo project of recent years, has remarkable melodic and arranging instincts matched by her direct and personal vocal and lyrical capacity. Azalia, with a lengthy discography dating back to the late ‘80’s, has created a body of work based around a swirling, ethereal guitar and vocal approach that comes from an unpretentious/unstudied four-track ethic, yet informed by a musical and literary knowledge that gives her songs and instrumentals a timeless component. Tracking through How To Live With A Tiger it is not difficult to distinguish their song writing identities, yet it is also apparent how much they share in attitude about making music, using the studio, and maintaining a brightness and spontaneity to the recording. This re-release, also making available again three of the four tracks from their debut single in ‘92, highlights many strengths of both artists and gives an opportunity to re-visit a watershed recording in their musical careers.