Verde begins in low light. A single bass frequency pulses for a full eight bars before a voice croons from the dark: "I can’t be sure of it." Its echo follows close behind, and then its echo’s echo, twinning around each other, filling the grotto (complete with dripping noises) like waves at high tide. The track, "Can’t Be Sure", is the embodiment of what Tei Shi calls "mermaid music," and an intermittent heartbeat suggests that the "it" the voice sings of is likely a matter of the heart. The song, like the rest of the EP, explores the exposed, liminal spaces: between certainty and uncertainty, desire and apathy, wanting and needing.
Tei Shi is the moniker of New York City-based singer/songwriter and producer Valerie Teicher. She released her first EP, Saudade, in 2013 with collaborator and producer Luca (who also helped produce Verde). The project introduced her to the world as a skilled and fluid vocalist, the kind who can create waves with nothing but her voice and loops. Born in Buenos Aires to Colombian parents, Teicher's family uprooted and moved to Canada and then she left for music school in Boston. "When your environment changes so much around you, you have to make yourself the constant," she said in a 2014 interview with Rookie. Teicher's music shares some overlap with the dreamy, future soul/alt-R&B sphere of Kelela or Tinashe, and she also brings to mind the similarly water-obsessed Rahel, or an '80s-pop-leaning Shura. But while her voice can fit anywhere she flexes it, she's still finding the best context for it.
Verde is in one sense a series of experiments exploring how an artist maintains an individual voice across genres. The EP’s first single and second track, "Bassically", for instance, takes the form of a synthy '80s pop ballad. While the lyrics themselves fall a bit flat, Teicher sells them with her delivery, and over the course of a couple verses, she builds into some serious siren-level wails. "Go Slow", the pop gem of the EP, is a sweet, if guarded, invitation to get closer, with a groove that is part boom bap, part trap-lite, but swathed in electropop. "See Me", meanwhile, is a more direct line to Teicher’s indie roots. Atmospherically, it's kind of like a cross between the lushness of Bat for Lashes and the minimalism of the xx. It works beautifully, but the xx guitars in particular sound a little too close to the original, and you sense that Teicher is still figuring out who she is as a producer.
She may still be coming into her own in that regard, but Verde glows with unmistakable and appealing confidence. On record, Teicher radiates a quiet self-possession, someone conscious of her desires and unafraid of vulnerability. There are a few possible directions mapped out on this EP, and hopefully whichever one she takes next, she’ll bring the same kind of magnetism and musical responsiveness with her.
