Church Chords: elvis, he was Schlager LP (Otherly Love, 2024)

February 25, 2024 at 6:15 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Church Chords: elvis, he was Schlager LP

This amazingly titled LP, masterminded by Stephen Buono, has a long list of guest artists, including Nels Cline, Genevieve Artadi, Jeff Parker, and Takako Minekawa. Elliott Bergman (NOMO, Wild Belle) played on and co-wrote the Tropicalia-influenced “Renda”, sung in Portuguese by Artadi. “Apophatic Melismatic” is more of a bubbly cosmic disco excursion, and is mostly instrumental. The album gets a little jazzier after that, and Jeff Parker delivers a bewildering solo on “Warriors of Playtime”. “She Lays on a Leaf” sounds heavily Krautrock-influenced and has Stereolab-like vocals, but comes out much differently than that band’s interpretation of the style, sounding more surreal and aggressive. “Owned by Lust” is a punkish, paranoid rant, and “Then Awake” is a lush, slinky psychedelic pop gem featuring Minekawa. The manipulated robo-vocals on “I Hope You See” make the futuristic R&B track feel like an outlier on an album that already doesn’t conform to one style, dreaming up a combination of sounds from several different places and eras.

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