The Answer Is In The Beat

Well: Tape (Favela Discos, 2017)

September 3, 2018 at 4:28 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

This minimal-info tape from Portugal starts out with a 25-minute live seance for its first side. “Mass In C Minor For Diskette Box” sounds like it couldn’t have taken more than a few small machines to make, but the duo manage to conjure ghosts that the machines’ manufacturers certainly weren’t aware were inside of them. Starting with a prowling drone, a clicking beat gradually grows louder and more out of control. It eventually dies down, but then other noises begin to swarm like an ever-growing flock of mechanical robot birds. Once the terror becomes too much to bear, things start exploding and shooting off into space. The other side of the tape has several shorter pieces, allowing for more concentrated panic bursts (“Short-Circuit”) as well as the seep-into-your-consciousness drone “Bird Road”. Still available from Bandcamp.

Peace To Mateo: Some Strange Reason (Young Heavy Souls, 2018)

September 2, 2018 at 11:39 am | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Young Heavy Souls is quickly becoming Detroit’s premier label for all things downtempo, wonky, and experimental hip-hop. They’ve already released records by alumni of Ninja Tune, Ghostly, and Mush Records, as well as several promising local artists. Peace To Mateo (Matt Black) is the head of the label, and his newest album is a concentrated dose of dreaminess featuring ethereal scratching, ghostly voices, and jazzy horns. Rather than a sample-driven beat tape, this is an album of proper compositions, with live recordings weaved in a collage-like manner. There’s a heavy dub influence to the bass and effects of tracks like “Blue Light Ocean”, yet the slight wonkiness of “Splash Damage” clearly puts it in the category of post-Brainfeeder hip-hop. Nothing here ever seems hard or aggressive, but tracks like “Lazerdisk” and “Court the Void” are still just a slight bit twisted or more muscular enough to grab your attention instead of simply fading away into an anonymous stream of chilled-out beats.

Acemo: EP 12″ (Vanity Press Records, 2018)

September 2, 2018 at 11:08 am | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Brooklyn’s Acemo previously appeared on Color Plus’ Vanity Press 12″, and now he has a solo EP on the label. “R.E.M. Dance” is bright, upbeat electro-techno with sunray-like synth pads and an appropriately dreamy sense of optimism. “Get It From The Sound” is lo-fi and slightly menacing, with garage-house chords and snapping electro beats, as well as rough vocals not dissimilar to “Da Back”, Acemo’s Color Plus collaboration. “The Essence” has more floating garage chords and a bit more of a neon-streaked electro feel. “Speedn N Smokin” is practically all percussion, with an occasional emphasis on the kick drum in order to give it sort of a sideways bump. As an added bonus, the digital version on Bandcamp has an extra track, “Jam 1212”, another track with snapping electro beats as well as loosely bouncing notes which vaguely tip towards trance.

True Blue: Solitary Queen tape (self-released, 2018)

August 31, 2018 at 10:59 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

The debut EP from recent Local Music Show guest True Blue (Detroit-based singer/songwriter Alexandria Berry) contains four incredibly powerful, hook-filled tunes about yearning, disappointment, and abandonment. Berry multi-tracks her vocals, guitar, and bass, while Dina Bankole (Secret Twins, Swimsuit, Casual Sweetheart) provides steady yet urgent backbeats. Berry’s songs are simply constructed yet scathing. There’s a whole lot of vitriol on songs like “Look What You’ve Done” and “Not Anymore”, and especially the nagging “Only If You Want To”, yet the songs don’t sound harsh or abrasive. They’re easy-to-swallow garage pop tunes, but the lyrics really dig into my heart. Currently on repeat, and it sounds better every listen. True Blue will be opening for Fred Thomas (who mixed and mastered this tape) at Outer Limits Lounge in Hamtramck on September 19, and I do not want to miss it! Stream and buy the limited cassette at Bandcamp.

Dean Spunt: EE Head LP (Radical Documents, 2018)

August 31, 2018 at 10:19 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

No Age’s Dean Spunt picks apart a few, sparse musical elements and recombines them in order to create very detached, quasi-musical pieces which nevertheless have some sort of forward motion to them. There’s some tenuously connected arcs of feedback, some nearly accidental-sounding drum crashes and sample bursts, and a starkly thumping electronic kick drum which seems to sleepwalk through it all. It’s divided into four pieces, but it’s essentially one thematic work. It does get a bit more kinetic at the beginning of the second side, however, where the beat picks up and the feedback becomes more wavy and forcefield-like. The following “Locker” mostly just sounds like a motor running, but there’s a very few brief moments where notes are faintly audible. This was originally performed at a gallery in New York last year, and it’s easy to imagine the artist just sitting at a desk with a few small machines in front of him in a nearly blank room.

Erica Eso: 129 Dreamless GMG (NNA Tapes, 2018)

August 31, 2018 at 9:05 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Erica Eso are a Brooklyn-based group who write experimental pop songs which generally sound breezy and groovable, even chilled out, yet they’re far from conventional or straightforward. Lead vocalist and composer Weston Minissali is also in Cloud Becomes Your Hand, a group known for cartoonish, Zappa-like prog-pop, and while it’s easy to recognize similarities in both band’s approaches, Erica Eso are far more in tune with radio-ready pop and R&B, and generally sound more polished and accessible… to an extent. The harmony-heavy “Gun-Metal Grey” could be mistaken for a chillwave track, if not for the showers of mutant sax and subtle rhythmic trickery. “Fire Is The Mouth” has a motorik beat which speeds up at the beginning, as well as heaps of unexpected guitar noise (courtesy of Delicate Steve). “Love-Gun” is much calmer, with echoing-thought duet vocals (including a momentary reference to eccojam favorite “Too Little Too Late” by Jojo). The two-part “Mirror Stage” is a total departure into abstract weightlessness, with sporadic electronic drums clattering around detached guitar howls. “Vaccination Free” inhabits similar territory, except it’s accompanied by a robotic choir, which at one point describes the group’s sound as “femmed-out microtonal synth-pop”. “House That’s Always Burning” ends this short album with another futuristic hyper-pop gem, blending proggy arrangements with neon synths and radio-ready vocals courtesy of Angelica Bess (recent collaborator with Chrome Sparks, Giraffage, Machinedrum, etc).

Grasses: Vision tape (self-released, 2018)

August 26, 2018 at 6:42 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Local trio making garagey indie pop (think Bad Indians, Rebel Kind, etc) with a slight Krautrock influence. The emphasis is on songwriting, for sure, but they get locked into tight grooves on songs like “Today”. Other songs (“First Sister”, “Psychic Reality”) are more concentrated bursts of energy, while there’s slower, dreamier ones like “Glass Box” and “Colors”. There’s lots of highlights here, but the mysterious, perfectly constructed “Wake Up” stands out the most, and the luscious “See Again” is too lovely for words. Tape/download available from Bandcamp.