Slipped Discs November 2018
Discs You May Have Missed
by John Noyd
Laura Jane Grace & The Devouring Mothers
Initial Thoughts
Doubling down, November albums overindulge. Be it Fight Club rock-vipers LAURA JANE GRACE & THE DEVOURING MOTHERS’ tart, “Bought to Rot,” or court-jester rebels FROG’s ironic garage-rock Americana, “Whatever We Probably Already Had It,” the season reaps extremes. Max out to well-traversed dervishes DEAD CAN DANCE’s ravishing paradises, “Dionysus,” dawn-breaking CELER’s deep-ocean chill, “Memory Repetitions,” and musical Hydra ED HARCOURT’s pensive piano-powered, “Beyond the End.” Either way, don’t stop now.
Disc Reviews
Michele Mercure - Beside Herself
Michele Mercure
Album title: Beside Herself
Record Label: RVNG Intl
Basement arcades whose blissful thrills blossom in primitive synchronicity, Mercure’s overdue anthology trips, flips and unfolds vintage synths and tampered samples marching down cyber-dream construction-sites armed with single-minded grooves chasing funky fire-flies among factory ruins. Surreal symphonies integrating mouse-trap Krautrock, “Herself,” chooses eerie palettes to compose haunting compositions for dances both stiff and spacey, natural and mechanical, flawless and accidental.
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Michele Mercure online:
• Website
• Download Beside Herself from Amazon
• Purchase Beside Herself on Amazon
Gabby's World - Beast on Beast
Gabby's World
Album title: Beast on Beast
Record Label: Yellow K Records
Whip-smart, happy pop swirled in giddy indie-rock, “Beast,” reaches for the stars and grabs brass rings; circling worry with confident promises where friendly suggestions slide down carefree beats riding rainbow highways paved in pastel harmonies. Immersed in day-glo open disclosure and silver-lined kindness, the former Eskimeaux’s reincarnated Gabby’s World spins in dizzy, twist and shout welcomes and genuine, tender good-byes.
(1064) Page Views
Gabby's World online:
• Website • Facebook
• Download Beast on Beast from Amazon
Public Memory - Demolition
Public Memory
Album title: Demolition
Record Label: felte
Velvet neon streaked across galvanized clockwork, “Demolition,” blends ancient anchorless pangs into precise rhythmic devices for luscious zig-zag schematics infiltrating cool sonic fogs. Submitting shimmering images sinking in impoverished economy, billowing in silhouettes and tangled in directionless dimensions, Public Memory interjects fishbowl ghosts broaching cybernetic etiquette with mobile claustrophobia, lost, vacuum-sealed lightning rods smoldering under stainless glazes and frosty blue-prints.
(1061) Page Views
Public Memory online:
• Website • Facebook
• Download Demolition from Amazon
• Purchase Demolition on Amazon
Kelly Moran - Ultraviolet
Kelly Moran
Album title: Ultraviolet
Record Label: Warp Records
Sound-cluster sculptor and aural animator, Moran’s lively style stacks calculated cacophony into climatic happenstance; toppling hops overtaking rippling skips while brisk, exponential melodies engulf waterfall geometry married to fearlessly serial hysteria. A wonder and delight, “Ultraviolet,” negotiates, infatuates and retaliates with keyboard-driven expeditions decorated in gamelan tail-spins and divine pachinko symmetry, sorting assorted contorted choreography into lovely, enchanting and ticklish.
(1022) Page Views
Kelly Moran online:
• Website • Facebook
• Download Ultraviolet from Amazon
• Purchase Ultraviolet on Amazon
Love Jerks - Million Movies
Love Jerks
Album title: Million Movies
Record Label: self-release
Spry lo-fi rock operettas culled from melodramatic matinees and real-life romance, “Movies,” croon and schmooze in heavy-petting show-stoppers, jiving to hoodwinked hullabaloos, skinny-tie shin-digs and Friday-night house-parties. Fun-loving punks crashing renegade serenades into hopped-up teen anthems, Love Jerks cruise in gear boy-girl face-offs, retro-swinging kitsch dishing electric-blue doo-wop and gushing New Wave hustle; savvy finales crafted for ravenous off-Broadway cabaret.
(1112) Page Views
Love Jerks online:
• Website • Facebook
Rosanne Cash - She Remembers Everything
Rosanne Cash
Album title: She Remembers Everything
Record Label: Blue Note
Bittersweet steel-guitar ripples among brushed snare and aching bass; elegant apprehension weaves between sad-ballad resolutions and strong story-teller’s intrigue as woke folk royalty Cash pours her entire being into every self-reflected moment. Personal myths rising from campfire hymnals, “Everything,” connects hearts and minds to humane campaigns with subtle orchestration, clear lyrics and perceptive metaphors shining sober hope onto solemn problems.
(1219) Page Views
Rosanne Cash online:
• Website • Facebook • Wiki
• Download She Remembers Everything from Amazon
• Purchase She Remembers Everything on Amazon
Final Thoughts
Between pervasive persuaders VESSELS’ schizophrenic art-rock renaissance, “Queen of the Golden Dogs,” fashionably impassioned HOLY KNIVES’ debonair film-noir, “Year of the Black Dog,” and mind-reeling indie-chameleon ROSE DROLL’s, multi-tasking soft-sell groove-raps, “Your Dog,” November unleashes packs of musical mutts and symphonic mongrels. Add refined canine goldmines, expansive fantasist EIKO ISHIBASHI serene suites, “The Dream My Bones Dream,” plus string nymphs and ocean angels MEG BAIRD AND MARY LATTIMORE’s magnificent astral-folk, “Ghost Forests,” then pepper with shaggy hagglers TOMORROW’S TULIPS rainy-day jangle, “Harnessed To Flesh” and it’s a dog’s life indeed.