Slipped Discs September 2010
Discs you may have missed | by John Noyd
September often marks a return to routine. Back to work? Plug into SAM PREKOP’s atmospheric automaton odyssey, “Old Punch Card.” Miss the sunshine? Soak up multi-talented RICHARD BARONE’s radiantly raggedy, pop-rock concoction, “Glow.” From CAS HALEY’s soul-inspired reggae, “Connections,” to the spindly symmetry in OVAL’s galvanized electrical experiment, “O,” autumn discs concede and contest routine advancing structurally-minded titles and their anarchist doppelgangers. Deviate from the norm and repeat as needed.
Kristin Hersh
CrookedRecord Label:
Review published: August 2010
Mounting electricity rips through, “Crooked,” as acoustic voodoo squalls carved from Hersh’s inscrutably unique dervish curses snake around careening guitars and stun-gun percussion. Irrepressible epiphanies pair punk parables to mountain-music mania, channeling deliberately elliptical folk psychosis with haunting clarity. Available this summer on-line from CASH music, “Crooked,” returns accompanied by a bonus-laden book.
Reader Votes: 0
The Clientele
MinotaurRecord Label: Merge Records
Review published: September 2010
A mini-album packed to the gills, from the quasi-classical to the nakedly oratorical, Minotaur,” jumps verbal hurdles with posh indie-pop. Richly descriptive visions pitch open-hearted curve-balls, blue-eyed soul courting memory and dream, woozy musings illuminated in toe-tapping mojo. TC’s craftily re-mastered music hall rock tosses off crisp Britpop swagger saluting fine taste and good breeding.
Reader Votes: 0
Fences
FencesRecord Label: Onto Entertainment (ADA)
Review published: September 2010
Bedroom pop wallpapered in weathered regrets and street-fed wisdom, “Fences,” packages unsorted feelings into restless resolution, nimble pickin’ and waltzing melodies whose casual insight and gifted riffs bolster roller-coaster emotions through stoic brokered perspective. Personable and persuasive, Fences’ jaunty melancholy and placid happiness nestle together befriended by quietly spry lyrics, sly hooks and humble brilliance.
Reader Votes: 0
Interpol
InterpolRecord Label: Matador
Review published: September 2010
Stripped down to a sleek threesome, “Interpol,” still thinks big. Gloating in slow reproaches cloaked in dark velvet tensions and cast-iron cadence, brawny sonic monuments get lubricated in withering glances and sinister insect rhythms. Fashionably dramatic twists fortify Interpol’s ultra-cool odes simmering in insurgency – hatching glam-rock plots born from suspicious minds, tortured desires and lurking malevolence.
Reader Votes: 0
Underworld
BarkingRecord Label: OM Records
Review published: September 2010
First-time use of outside producers, Underworld’s sixth disc remains indelibly true to its trance-disco roots. Corridors of escalating beats, sweetened in hip-swiveling jangle and arena-sized synthesizers, helicopter to rapturous pneumatic satisfaction. Tentatively menacing, “Barking,” revel in spotlight stares cast from lingering sizzle; steamy cybernetic sequences teasing secret night-time daydreams between pounding downtown declarations exuding cavalier club-hopping confidence.
Reader Votes: 0
The Young Scamels
TempestRecord Label: File 13
Review published: September 2010
Music composed for the Shakespeare play; “Tempest,” dispenses magical moods, funneling modest solace and worldly wonder into eloquent sentiments. Songs, soliloquies and spell-binding post-rock hover over swarming strings, quizzical cymbals and twittering marimbas as wordless pursuits cavort and consort around ectoplasmic incantations. Lending a gentle tenderness, TYS’s spirited instrumentals devise, confide and mesmerize.
Reader Votes: 0
Final Thoughts
Can’t see the forest for the trees? No problem. Nibble on tasty electro-folk innovators THE ACORN’s cultivated jam-based Americana-crunk opus, “No Ghosts,” and then harvest psychedelic chamber-pop mischief-makers TALLEST TREES’ marvelous musical menagerie, “The Ostrich or the Lark.” Plant yourself beside smart, emo-rocking romanticists THE LONELY FOREST’s flying, driving self-titled EP before finally navigating classically-bent folk revisionists LOST IN THE TREES’ vast and lovely, “All Alone in an Empty House.”
