MJ Guider: Youth and Beauty EP

The sonic undertakings from Melissa Guion are the kind that should be reaching far more ears. Underrated artists are often talked about throughout these pages (in many ways, this site wouldn’t exist without them), and if you were to compile a list, then Guion would be at the top of it.

Under the MJ Guider moniker, Guion has made some of the most daunting ambient music over the last decade. With her debut LP, the brilliant Precious Systems (2016) and the dream-pop-inspired Sour Cherry Bell (2020), not only are both Kranky staples, but also records that topped end of year lists, respectively.

Since then, Guion has continued to stealthy plot with more fractured soundscapes via her own modemain label. With the dead-eyed drones of the Matanza double A-side (2021) and Temporary Requiem (of the same year), the New Orleans artist has shifted into new obscure shapes. In December last year, it reached boiling point alongside Aidan Baker and Jana Sotzko in the final Trio Not Trio instalment, the wonderful Letzte.

On Youth and Beauty, Guion’s latest MJ Guider release, the EP (mastered by Khanate’s James Plotkin) sees the multidisciplinary artist reconnect with the flute – an instrument she played periodically during her formative years.

Guion’s use of the flute is more of a muse rather than a focal point on Youth and Beauty, and it’s a key factor. Opening track, Primavera (Ritmo Joven), illuminates MJ Guider’s trademark barrelling drones, boring through the earth’s core as the woodwind sounds hover like some malignant spirit creating an unsettling aura.

These atmospheres persist on Opaline and later with Grand Couteau. Two of the most incongruous compositions Guion has written, as the waves of uncertainty contain the kind of dystopian dread you’d associate with, say, a William Gibson novel.

My Regeneration is the thread that holds Youth and Beauty together. Again, the flute is vital, and alongside gritty tones and distortion, it portrays the civic vitality and industry of Guion’s native Louisiana. Prior to the release, Guion spoke of the furnace-like conditions this EP was conceived in and inspired by, and My Regeneration is the evidence.

With more humid thrums and drones, Coluber Constrictor Foxiii is like a spectre’s call through the furnace, making it a fitting end to Youth and Beauty. While the vortex has played a crucial role to the MJ Guider story, Guion’s takes a left-hand turn on Youth and Beauty instead taking us through the steaming marshlands. And through the warped world of improvisation and locality, it’s a terrain that Guion explores to great effect.   

Youth and Beauty is out next Wednesday February 7 via modemain. Purchase from Bandcamp.