On 'No Rules Sandy,' Sylvan Esso finds freedom outside the formula
Sylvan Esso's fourth album ends in a manner almost antithetical to the duo's original musical impulses, putting the band's early-days and present versions on opposite shores. As they've recounted, it all started when folk singer Amelia Meath — then best known as a member of the choral-forward group Mountain Man — conscripted electronic music producer Nick Sanborn to remix her song, "Play It Right." Sanborn, performing under the alias Made of Oak, transformed a tightly harmonized a cappella tune into a brash, alien thing, bottom heavy and propulsive. A band was born off the heady feeling of discovering something new in each other, with that remix slotting in as the penultimate track of its 2014 self-titled debut.
Since then, Sylvan Esso has been synonymous with
