Slipped Discs - January 2009
Discs you may have missed | by John Noyd
Last year the following fine discs slipped past Slipped Discs – last minute theme changes, release date push-backs, inconclusive communications and the ever-present space limitation left them on the cutting room floor. Who says there are no second chances?
Starflyer 59
Dial MRecord Label: Tooth and Nail
Review published: January 2009
Suave and sardonic, “M,” phones in catchy beats, dark chords and ambulance urgency, delivering slithering, sinister vamps and slick, square-jawed indie-rock stomps. Stubborn, steady hooks probe and prod as Starflyer 59 addresses brooding moods in fluid phrases and menacing new wave. Tortured portraits taunt and mock while taking stock in shadowy pop.
Reader Votes: 1
Who Killed Harry Houdini?
Record Label: Mute
Review published: January 2009
Sprawling odysseys circling innocence and adolescence with shirtsleeve hearts and underlying pining, the English-singing Swede’s sophomore effort befriends and amends. Timid and torrential, the thirty-member band offers a spicy musical minestrone in a gaily painted Galapagos of banjo, tympani, clarinet and brass as IMB’s kindergarten rock whispers wistfully and roars sympathetically.
Reader Votes: 0
Jenny Lewis
Acid TongueRecord Label: Warner Bros
Review published: January 2009
Dishing out an inspired buffet of bent Americana, modern songbird Lewis’ song-writing skills turn classic formats into formidable platforms, launching alt-country gospels, weepy folk ballad blues and raging rockabilly toe-tappers. Couched in cameos and chameleon changes, “Acid,” waxes and wanes, openly hopeful then wickedly sinful. Powerful pipes aid adventurous exercises in Lewis’ adept adaptations.
Reader Votes: 0
Chopteeth
Chopteeth Afrofunk Big BandRecord Label: Grigri Discs
Review published: January 2009
Biting brass rides rumbling rumbas while hip-hop highlife wiggle and worm its way past jazzy James Brown soul. Nimble, relentless and electrifying, the twelve-piece D.C.-based band sings, shouts and seduces in seven languages as Chopteeth’s politically-charged beats respectfully skim rhythms from Senegal to Jamaica, dancing from Ghana to Nigeria straight into Funkytown USA.
Reader Votes: 1
Miniature Tigers
Tell It to the VolcanoRecord Label: Modern Art
Review published: January 2009
Sour grapes make sweet poison, indeed as “Volcano,” blithely applies evil touches neatly tucked behind choir-boy buoyancy. Scathing favors happily twisting tongues and filling lungs. conspiring and harmonizing, Tigers’ brightly burning tales skip, quip and stammer, cheerfully smiling through subversively sunny songs where love turns obsessive and hope leaves town.
Reader Votes: 0
Peter Buffett
Imaginary KingdomRecord Label: Beside Records
Review published: January 2009
Soft, buttery ballads glide to machine-tooled grooves - robotic pop layering logic alongside longing for social conscience swimming in sophisticated syncopation, Buffett’s, “Kingdom,” build waves of hard-wired wondering washing over clockwork convictions, ticking time-bombs packing compassion in stately arrangements that stir and shimmy, dance floor diplomacy wrestling questions in hip-swiveling dialogues, cooing solutions.
Reader Votes: 0
School Of Seven Bells
AlpinismsRecord Label: Ghostly International
Review published: January 2009
Secret Machines’ Benjamin Curtis teams up with twins Alejandra and Claudia Deheza weaving steamy cybernetic melodies between lockjaw rhythms,. Spinning space-age atmospheres, “Alpinism,” accentuate mesmerizing sound rainbows from astral sirens tempting mental cosmonauts. Airy fairies ferry digital dreams of binary bliss against restless tides, colliding into heavenly buzz, flitting into glittery symphonies.
Reader Votes: 0
Final Thoughts
Before bidding 2008 farewell, kudos go to BOUND STEMS, AMANDA PALMER, ARIZONA, MARGOT AND THE NUCLEAR SO & SO’s and MY MORNING JACKET for great CDs and AMY RAY, THE WEDDING PRESENT, LAURIE ANDERSON, MAGNETIC FIELDS and ALINA SIMONE for great shows.
