The Answer Is In The Beat

Flora FM: Chaos Light EP 12″ (Kalahari Oyster Cult, 2019)

June 30, 2019 at 3:35 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Flora FM continues his winning streak from last year with one of two new records for 2019. “Hallucinogenic Worm” is a mellow, driving May/Saunderson type of track with some strange mumbling voices buried underneath, and “Chrome Grass” is a little quirkier and choppier but still feels more excited than nervous. “Storm Cleaned”, however, is the business. Exactly the type of heavy breaks and fluid, fluorescent synths that made his Vanity Press record so special. “Insist On You (Brain Mix)” is filled with cute robot noises and springy, chimey sounds, as well as filtered beats moving everything through the tunnel.

Davis Galvin: EP 12″ (Vanity Press, 2019)

June 30, 2019 at 3:02 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

This EP has one of those opening tracks that’s hard to get past. “All Night Long” starts out a bit fragmented and tentative, but then crystalline trills and lush “everything’s gonna be fine” synths trickle in, along with flickering amen breaks and ray-of-sunshine vocals. It seems wrong to suggest that Vanity Press has a “sound”, but this is exactly the type of high-quality feelgood club banger the label regularly puts out. “Return from the Sky” is significantly darker, with killer bass and a UFO documentary melody over intense, pressurized breaks. “Bass-Biology Interface” starts out eerie and warped but gets friendlier, and it seems to rapidly ping through the air with a grin on its face. “Loudspeaker Situation” is just perfect summer music, with heavy, shuffling breakbeats and super gorgeous synths that just feel like the sun shining on your face. “Waterbody” seems way more detached, but the 4/4 thump keeps it from completely floating away.

Charles Trees: 2019 12″ EP (Portage Garage Sounds, 2019)

June 24, 2019 at 10:37 am | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Charles Trees’ newest EP arrives on Shigeto’s Portage Garage Sounds, and it’s another scorching set of forward-thinking dance tracks fit for multiple occasions. “Got No” is a fast, hypercharged boogie track with a sophisticated bassline and choppy vocals, filled with minute details. “Think First” has a more direct, booming kick drum with jazzy snares/cymbals, and it builds suspense and just gets deeper and deeper. “In Arms” cruises along with dubby chords and swift, electro-ish beats, and has a bit of an off-the-ground feeling. “Acja (Club Mix)” is a steady acid-ish house cut with saxophone playing by Marcus Elliot which starts out subtle and harmonic before calmly blooming later on. Elliot doesn’t hog the spotlight, though, his playing gently rides the rhythm and adds to the track’s sunny atmosphere.

Pengo: File Under WTF??? LP (Carbon, 2019)

June 22, 2019 at 12:27 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Pengo are a longstanding free rock collective from Rochester, New York whose members are behind the label Carbon Records. This album title is fitting more because of how unstructured and unpredictable the band’s music is rather than the level of bizarreness. A lot of it sounds like simmering and smoldering, with rusty, buzzing guitars swarming and drums erupting at will. That said, there’s certainly some head-scratching moments. The craggy distortion that opens “Bumper Stickers” will probably catch you off guard, and the enthusiastic YouTuber sampled at the beginning of the second side, who freaks out over witnessing some sort of rare locomotion, honestly kind of annoys me more than anything else. The best track is probably “Doorway to the Sky”, the steady extended jam that ends the first side. The end of the second side, “Doctrine of the Flame”, is also pretty swell.

Tomasz Bednarczyk: Illustrations For Those Who (Room40, 2018)

June 21, 2019 at 9:35 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

A few years ago, Tomasz Bednarczyk released an ambient album on Room40 under the name New Rome that I really enjoyed, and I was kind of astonished that nobody seemed to talk about it. I’m not sure if there’s a difference between New Rome and Bednarczyk’s material under his own name, but this is along the same lines as the New Rome album I heard, and it’s similarly fantastic. These pieces usually aren’t too long, and they all seem to suspend a certain moment at a specific location in time; titles like “Botanical Garden” and “Rainy Drive” (which samples rainfall and somehow manages to make it sound almost shoegazey) make it clear what’s going on. Although, “Sunny Ambient” is maybe a bit cloudier than you might expect. Still, it’s all relaxing and enjoyable; he gets a lot of mileage out of limited sets of grainy loops. Perhaps the best track is “Sunday”, a short piece which captures the gloominess of an uneventful weekend and makes it sound lovely.

Neil Hamburger: Still Dwelling (Drag City, 2019)

June 20, 2019 at 6:09 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

The latest from America’s Funnyman is one of those albums where he sings. It’s not quite the sequel to Neil Hamburger Sings Country Winners, but it’s along the same lines — the songs are basically all about how much of a lonely, pathetic loser he is. But like that album, this is remarkably well produced and arranged. Aside from a version of Paul Simon’s “Homeward Bound”, he largely steps away from country, instead going for more of an epic ’60s orchestral pop sound. He turns a Mark Eitzel song (“Lonely”) into something that sounds like it could’ve been sung by Tom Jones, and he covers “Everything’s Alright” from Jesus Christ Superstar, with Jack Black playing the role of Judas and Mike Patton as Jesus. He covers “Standing On the Corner” (“watching all the girls go by”) and “The Straight Life”, seemingly oblivious to how their lyrics simply wouldn’t fly today. Perhaps the funniest song here is the over-the-top rendition of “World Without Love”, and the album ends with a backhandedly optimistic original called “Little Love Cup”, with the moral of the story being that “nobody loves a hater”. While this might be the grandest, most accessible musical statement Neil has made, it’s still probably a lot funnier if you’re familiar with the character’s backstory. My favorite albums of his are still Laugh Out Lord, the absolutely brutal Hot February Night (performed in front of an unsuspecting crowd of Tenacious D fans), and the underrated radio drama Great Moments at Di Presa’s Pizza’s House. This isn’t on the level of those, but like all of his albums, he’s doing something a little different and adding to his strange, hilarious legacy.

Western Edges: Prowess CDr (Sound In Silence, 2019)

June 16, 2019 at 11:30 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

This is the first release from the new solo project of Richard Adams from Hood. The short album primarily consists of brief ambient pieces which are built around simple, gentle melodies, floating between moments of reverie (“Suddenly a Dream”) and dark, fearful reflection and yearning (“Western Edges”, “You’re Going To Miss My Love”, and others). Surprisingly enough, some tracks also feature stiff, crunchy kick drums. “Solid Gold Soul” is a bit of bliss out in the tundra, while “Very Good on the Rushes” peers up at the stars hoping for release from soul-crushing loneliness, with a huge orb of bass and bitcrushed beats keeping hope alive. “Absence” is the only long track here, and it begins with a shower of synth pads before a sparse kick (similar to the Sight Below) comes in, followed by a dubby post-punk bassline and just a few synth notes, which nevertheless help keep things alert. Then it all strips away and all that’s left is the dusk.