Order new album Liminal Zone !
Artist: MORNING STAR MUSIC CLUB
Title: LIMINAL ZONE LP
Released: 4th APRIL 2025
Label: Disco-Ordination Records
Formats: Vinyl | Digital
Catalogue no. DOLP040
“Music of melody and harmony and words of wisdom. What more can I say. What more could you want?”
~ Kate Stables (This Is the Kit)
Liminal Zone is the sparkly, soul and groove laden fifth album from Morning Star Music Club, the project of Jesse D. Vernon (This Is the Kit, John Parish, The Moonflowers). Previously known simply as Morning Star, Liminal Zone is the first release in over ten years, and the name has been extended to acknowledge the collective involved in the new record. Whilst Jesse wrote all the songs and most of the arrangements, the bunch of close musician friends he gathered to flesh out the tracks turned the recording process into what Jesse calls “a kind of music club workshop environment,” with the songs evolving and the album recorded within just four days at the Paris Audioscope studio in October 2023, with production from long-term collaborator John Parish.
Liminal Zone is a selection of both soulful and soul-searching indie-pop songs led by guitars and the vocal harmonies of Lisa Weisslinger (ER doctor turned Morning Star Music Club guitarist and vocalist) and Abby Tsype (translator come bassist and vocalist) alongside Jesse's own mellow tones, with themes of losing and re-finding oneself and the fragmentation and evolution of one’s heart and that of wider society. There's a lot of beauty and some wistful moments but plenty of sparkling fun and humour too including a cover of Jessie Mae Hemphill's 'Jessie's Love Song.'
The rest of Liminal Zone consists of original tracks, ‘Carry Home’ opens the album with funkadelic style and introduces us to the lush harmonies and charming quirks to be expected throughout the album. It is written about the sanctifying nature of home as Jesse explains “In the lyrics ‘Two of us walking/Close to the line/Somehow cross over/To the forbidden side,’ we’re coming clean to ourselves and those around us about the changes we're going through. Whatever you've done, whatever (or whoever) you're carrying around with you, carry it home, live with it.... and watch it transform.”
‘Spiritual Guide’ continues the theme of home but on a slightly more divine level. “It’s about building a house for our spiritual guide but will we ever finish it? Who and what is the guide?” explains Jesse, tapping into his love of 50s and 60s gospel and blues in the song’s musings. The opening line is in keeping with the album’s low-key British humour “Thought I'd have everything sorted out by today”. The track is the b-side of the album’s first and equally mellow single ‘Drifting’ which could be a mid-period Neil Young tune and is written in the tradition of what Jesse calls “inquisitive backing vocal backing songs, such as ‘Help From My Friends.’”
‘Mind Mind’ takes the album down a more grove-laden path with its compelling bassline, whilst the album title track Liminal Zone is more freestyled, psychedelic and complete with a horn solo. Its slightly disconnected feel matches the lyrics “Oh man of action/So quick with your scythe/Cutting a clear and direct path though life/Civilisations/They come and they go/Yet here we still are in the liminal zone.” As Jesse expands “You think you're here but you're there, or neither. Are you tripping or is life fundamentally bizarre, confusing, insane even? Is that ok?” Jesse’s rich and clear vocals on both tracks recalling Jonie Lewie, or a more laidback Ian Jury.
‘The Tower Still Stands’ staddles the mellow and robust ends of the album in one song, with its explosive frenzied crescendo. It’s a good representation of the album, presenting music that is a rare mixture of often inharmonious elements, somehow managing a perfect balance between accessible and complex, light and heavy, soft and danceable.
Liminal Zone is an album of gently ambitious indie-pop full of heartfelt performances, showcasing Jesse’s expansive talent and deep lifelong love of music, tapping into wide ranging influences such as Velvet Underground and Hendrix, Dr. John, Leonard Cohen, reggae, soul, The Beatles and sounds of the British 60s invasion, with a dip also into the cinematic with a love of “the sort of stuff you’d find in a Wes Anderson film, arrangements with a huge sense of scale.”
Lyrically in its emotional honestly it oozes a kindness rare in today’s jaded world, it asks difficult questions, yet there’s no urgency in the songs to find the answers, they’re just happy to hang out and float on the groove of Morning Star Music Club’s bliss-tinged melancholy.
Carry It Home
Spiritual Guide
Mind Mind
Coming Round
Nice and Simple
Liminal Zone
Drifting
Jessie’s Love Song
Why Walk Away
Liminal Zone was written in full and mostly arranged by Jesse Vernon who also sings and plays guitar and piano, alongside the musician collective of Philip Sirop (drums), Abby Tsype (bass and vocals), Lisa Weisslinger (guitar and vocals) and Yohav Oremiatzki (guitar and vocals). Further contributions from esteemed guests such as Csaba Palotai (guitar), Boris Boubil (keys), Robin Finker (tenor sax), Stew Crookes (pedal steel), Flop (cuica and stylophone), Owen O'neill (bari-sax and synths) with additional vocals from Kate Stables (This Is the Kit) and daughter Mo.
The record was mixed by long term collaborator John Parish in February and November 2024
Jesse D Vernon has been a full-time musician since leaving school, he was a member of indie psyche-rock band The Moonflowers during the 90s, has played violin for John Parish’s live band, and is a founding member (alongside Kate Stables) of This Is the Kit in which he played piano and guitar. (Kate and Jesse moved to Paris together, where Jesse still resides, and have collaborated on many projects since, and their teenage daughter, Mo, sings on Liminal Zone as well as designed the album’s cover).
Since 2012, Jesse has led the Fantasy Orchestra in Bristol and Paris, with chapters now in Nantes, Calderdale and London also. As part of the orchestra Jesse has arranged more than 300 pieces including sets of Hendrix, Morricone, Radiohead, Sun Ra and Tropicallia and released The Bear and Other Stories LP in 2020. As Morning Star Jesse has previously released four albums, Swarf Finger (self-released, 1997), My Place In The Dust (Microbe Records 2001), The Opposite Is True (Microbe Records 2004) and A Sign for The Stranger (Microbe Records 2010) as well as contributing to the records of others such as performing the horn arrangements on Jessca Hoops Order of Romance LP (2022).