The Venus Project: Authentic and Raw
We exist in a vital time for women, and this project will slot nicely into a canon of work that has been created by and for females.
Georgia Nott of Broods has spent the last two years creating The Venus Project, working exclusively with female creators to create a 10 track album that simply celebrates the female experience. We exist in a vital time for women, with TIMESUP and #MeToo, and this project will slot nicely into a canon of work that has been created by and for females. Aptly named Volume 1, Nott is leaving room for other female creators to join The Venus Project and create their own works that can sit within this canon.
Musically, Vol. 1 explores a low-fi folksy sound that differs from Broods’ synth-pop style. The first track ‘Moon to Moon’ has an ethereal quality, with a minor chord harmony and a slight disconnect between the vocal line and the instrumentation that provokes feelings of vulnerability. Unashamedly female, some tracks like Need a Man read as commentary on the female experience in relation to men. Meanwhile, ‘Daughter of the King’, is written specifically for one of Nott’s cousins with a hymnal tone making reference to her faith. Hey Love (Pt. 1), a voice memo left by a friend of Nott’s is intimate and raw. I found Nott’s response in Pt. 2 to be lacklustre in comparison and to be honest I question its place in the overall album. There is something comforting hearing someone calling a friend a ‘tough cookie’ when they are going through a mental health crisis however — I am clearly not the only one who does not know quite what to say. My personal favourite is Take Me Out, with its soft ukulele instrumentation and melancholy vocal.
This is not a perfect album, even if the circumstances in which is made make me want to endlessly praise it. The sound is cohesive to the point where I could call it repetitive. But, in the age where there is no need to buy full albums anymore and people can pick and choose their favourite tracks to save, it is a relatively minor issue.
Importantly, this album feels like art rather than marketing. There is no track that is designed to get radio play, nothing that reads as false. Cashing in on the feminist movement would be an effective marketing campaign, but Vol. 1 is emotional, raw and exposed and there is not a single note that doesn’t scream passion and authenticity.
The project has been created due to Nott’s surprise to see women sitting behind the scenes in the music industry. It is still rare to see women on the technical side of album creation, and Nott had enough. She said in an interview with Harper’s Bazaar;
“I know that there are women out there that do this. I know for a fact, and I know that they’re good. There’s been a ridiculous amount of albums that have been made fully by men, so why can’t we just do one that’s all fucking women?”
She curated a team of diverse women of different ages, backgrounds and ethnicities, making this a work touched by the female experience. The woman on the is cover is deliberately styled for ambiguity, highlighting Nott’s understanding that being female experiences differ person to person, and is crucial at a time where intersectional feminism has never been more important.
I am interested to see where Nott takes the movement next, and to see if other female artists join the project and create work for volumes 2, 3, 4? There are still plenty of albums created entirely by men and no one bats an eye. I’d like to see female artists and creators create Venus Projects’ until it is no longer a surprise.
