Pulse - Minneapolis, St. Paul, MN

Jessica Peters (with a little help from her friends) is Petracovich.  The Southern California native had spent a few years as a coffeehouse styled folkie before reinvention herself (through some studious four-track recording exercises and keyboard tinkering) as a sleek Americanized purveyor of spy-noir trip-hop. (the same kind of sexy/sinister sound that made cult heroes out of Portishead a decade ago.  With ther new path solidified Peters hooked up with Tad Wagner (guitarist/engineer for the incomparable albeit overlooked band Buellton) and sculpted her debut album, blue cotton skin.  Sounding like a less weathered  Aimee Mann lost in effects-woozy outer space, the album is perfect for a relaxed late-evening listening, a 30-minute lullaby with incomparable soothing powers.  It should be interesting to see how Peters recreates the studio-intensive material in the live setting.