A Loupe — CD

Description

The first album from Marcus William Striplin’s solo project Margaret Chavez, A Loupe collects the history of Striplin’s recording life in the spirit of country strums, Texas prairies, howling feedback, thick riffs, multi-part harmonies, and stories about every kind of explosion and schism a heart can fathom. According to Striplin, the name is a tribute to Striplin’s mother, and it’s a memorial tribute in more ways than one. “You raise a child / you make it smile / just for a little, little while,” Striplin sings before bidding her—and what sounds like other pains in his life—”Gone, Gone, Gone.”

Striplin emerged from the burgeoning Texas music scene in the ’00s and ’10s, alongside artists like The Polyphonic Spree and experimental acts such as Lift to Experience and Derek Rogers. Striplin combines the ideas and sounds of his best peers and contemporaries in a sound that he describes as “heatstricken and reflecting chrome in the sun.”