The Answer Is In The Beat

Khaki Blazer: Didn’t Have To Cut tape (Hausu Mountain, 2017)

August 13, 2017 at 10:08 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

The newest brain-scrambler from Pat Modugno of Moth Cock features the type of rapidly fluctuating samples and abstract rhythms that are to be expected from him, but in some ways this one feels a bit more spacious and aired-out. There’s some airy drones and sensuous lingering behind all the squeaking and bonking and glitching. After the alarming test tones of “Saturn Rings”, “Passive Demon” is all sparkling constellations and cartoon powerdrills, and it rapidly switches between overwhelming enlightenment and sugar-spiked silliness. There’s moments where it’s like someone getting really starry-eyed and introspective and bordering on profound, and then the yoga mat gets pulled up from under them and they’re beaten over the head with it. Lightly, of course. This isn’t violent music in any way. It’s lopsided and goofy and trippy but not mean-spirited. Also, in a plunderphonic stroke of genius, the 11-minute album-ending dronescape “Death Bedhead” is constantly interrupted with a recurring sample of that annoying Gotye song, revealing the source of the album’s title.