March 17, 2014

Scraps’ “Electric Ocean” Is Quiet, Lonely, and Addictive

Courtesy of Fire Records

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Scraps
Electric Ocean
Fire

Ramshackle, often inscrutable and surprisingly poignant, Electric Ocean is a sneaky-good, one-woman display of do-it-yourself prowess by Laura Hill of Brisbane, Australia. Drenched in vintage analog electronics, including eccentric thrift-shop synths and rattling, clunky drum machines, Scraps’ songs feel like fleetingly glimpsed transmissions from a distant dimension. Hill buries her echo-heavy voice in the murky mix, sounding lonely and even desolate at times, but never succumbs to self-indulgence, thanks to deceptively melodic tunes that never overstay their welcome. Electric Ocean is mesmerizing, quietly unnerving, and highly addictive.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

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And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

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