Cassie Marin – Releases A Surveillance Bomb in “Busy Body”
By Keir Nicoll
LA based indie-electronica artist Cassie Marine just released a new single on Friday, August 27, called “Busy Body.” In it, Marin explores the binary of being the watcher and watched in a digital age. This is an interesting variation in point of view or perspective, in a time when postmodern problems abound, regarding the subject position of those of us who exist in and or on this plane. This is defining the intersections of different kinds of cultures. It is a reflection on surveillance and technological obsession. So, there is a remarkable semblance of the technologies of the current moment being represented in her music and voice. She is an electronic-music producer and also a lyricist of some weirdly-beautiful styles.
She was a gymnast en route to the Olympics when she was in her childhood but then an injury ended her physical career. Still, in her videos and movements or moments, she exudes a physical/dancer technique and also follows an explicitly statuesque form. She found solace in music, after her injury, where she taught herself how to write and produce songs. She brings the same grit and self-discipline from her gymnastic athletic career to her music. She is a pansexually self-defining woman and she breaks down barriers between being the lead-songwriter, producer and performer of all of her songs. This is in keeping with the current trends in this sort of popularly-produced music. It is in keeping with the styles of Grimes and Delirium before them, although maybe in a more pop-oriented direction. There is something in keeping with a main-stream attention of definition and detail in this.
Exploring musical and visual dimensions, Marin is a luminary of left-of-centre pop space. So, there is something newly being defined here, in her left-turn away from the glamour of mainstream pop-musicality.
In the “Busy Body,” pulsing synths and laid-back electronic drums are featured. She has a somehow energetic yet lazy sounding vocal approach. She sounds somehow influenced by 80s voices, or even Kylie Minougue. The song has a slowly-driving propensity to carry the listener. “I can feel you watchin' across the street,'' she sings. “If you love me you gotta set me free,” she intones. “Take it slow, ho-ho, here she goes.” The song seems to be about the rhythms of the music and the lyrics. “Just to watch me all night,” she hauntingly reverberates. The song seems to be about some diligent peeping-tom, who's looking into her love-life.
“Busy Body' is about being a loner in a world where cliques never cease to exist,” Cassie says.
Secretive, delicately-feminine and avant-garde, she wears her hair in vicious spikes, or in tantalizing bobs and creates music that moves you on a subtle level. Now, to inspire you, with her demure elegance- listen here.