Album Review: Nature by Valet

In a recent interview with FACT magazine, Valet’s Honey Owens was asked about any interesting instruments that might have been used in the making of Nature. Her answer was kind of funny, but also revealing: “We got really obsessed with tambourine. And I was releasing after the fact how important tambourine has been in the history of music. It’s just something that’s there and you’re like, ‘yeah, the tambourine,’ or whatever.

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Head here to submit your own review of this album. More often than not, it is difficult for established artists to expand their sound and try something different. Even more difficult is to succeed at that change. The best draw off of past experiences. They use their knowledge to influence and guide ….

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There's a song called "Transformation" on Valet's third album, Nature, and it's safe to say that the project's founder, Honey Owens, experienced some radical changes after the release of 2008's Naked Acid. During that time, Owens made experimental dance music with Rafael Fauria as Miracles Club and also started a family with him (it's also notable that there's a song called "Child"). Her return to Valet couldn't help but reflect these differences, but it's still remarkable how, well, natural they sound on Nature.

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Honey Owens has already released solo albums Blood Is Clean and Naked Acid under the moniker Valet, but Nature finds her recruiting her partner Rafael Fauria and Mark Burden, expanding out into a band and altering her outlook and sound considerably. The result is a project that sounds like a band, rather than a solo project with an occasional hired hand helping out. In the past, Owens has spoken about making music by channelling sounds and ideas, like a shaman might do.

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Initially a solo project for Portland-based musician Honey Owens, Valet explored territory that was not far afield from the singer's work in spooky, experimental-minded groups like Jackie-O Motherfucker. The project released two full-lengths on venerable zone-out institution, Kranky, and also an EP on Mexican Summer before disappearing from view in the late 2000s. Since 2010, Owens and her partner, Rafael Fauria, have focused on creating hardware-driven psychedelic house music under the name Miracles Club, releasing a number of EPs on labels like Ecstasy and Mexican Summer.

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