Slipped Discs April 2019

Discs You May Have Missed
by John Noyd

Pure Bathhing Culture

Pure Bathhing Culture

Initial Thoughts

This year’s April albums shake, wave and modulate. Whether pulsating synth-poppers PURE BATHING CULTURE’s, heart-broken disco, “Night Pass,” Floating programmer TOR LUNDVALL’s precocious retrospective, “A Strangeness in Motion,” or softcore circuit-boarder TEEN DAZE’s undulating, “Bioluminescence,” spring rings, ripples and tingles. Motion-sensitive compendiums from Transatlantic alt-rockers CIRCA WAVES’ contagious interrogations, “What’s It Like Over There,” and Britpop impresarios THE LEISURE SOCIETY’s masterful double-album, “Arrival + Departures,” only add to the energy.


Disc Reviews


Lady Lamb - Even in the Tremor

Lady Lamb - Even in the Tremor

Lady Lamb

Album title: Even in the Tremor
Record Label: Ba Da Bing

Gospel-polished indie-rock waltzes scale emotional heights while, “Tremor,” unearth deep-seated dreams leaning into groovy crusader-flavored closure for potent proactive unpacking excavating universal statements from autobiographical chapters. Humble rumblings teasing seething Phoenix pleads, Lady Lamb enlists simmering soul-kitchen brass and maypole folk-singer strings in a rich blustery production that impresses as it caresses, yielding bold philosophical control over lively existential pleasures.

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Tim Baker - Forever Overhead

Tim Baker - Forever Overhead

Tim Baker

Album title: Forever Overhead
Record Label: Arts & Crafts

Stepping away from Hey Rosetta, frontman Baker’s solo debut inserts trade-wind sway into sensitive reflections, leveraging unrequited insights and celebrating swift, uplifting attitudes with tranquil choirs, contrapuntal gumption and unaccompanied honesty. Fortunate tourniquets to melodic memories whose resting heartbeat hugs simple wisdom, “Overhead,” visits missed opportunities with transformative discourse touring fearless interior dialogues and soft-shoe moves partying in hardy camaraderie.

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Weyes Blood - Titanic Rising

Weyes Blood - Titanic Rising

Weyes Blood

Album title: Titanic Rising
Record Label: Sub Pop

Lush, air-brushed constructs papered in three-layered prayers and cross-stitched wishes, the radiant, “Rising,” reaches for embraceable transcendence past unseen horizons warmed in weather-beaten sunbeams and pitch-bent redemption. Forward-looking and nostalgic, Weyes Blood’s comforting bell-bottom ballads, tweaked in sweetheart country-rock and frosted in seventies ballroom pop, gently envelope sumptuous swirls with breathless momentum while guiding climbing song-lines into sublime musical design.

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Wand - Laughing Matter

Wand - Laughing Matter

Wand

Album title: Laughing Matter
Record Label: Drag City

Exploratory story-tellers, L.A.‘s Wand rock jam-band bangers and space-folk head-trips, spreading electric medicine by mashing heavenly frenzy from math-rock flash into epic splash-down psychedelia spanning grand, mechanical fantasies and anxious, impatient improvisations. Lost inside friendly schizophrenia, “Matters,” rattles, straddles and roars with stammering mantras building into sizzling six-string siroccos only to fade quietly among cryptic wizard’s riddles riding long-distance bliss.

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Rozi Plain - What A Boost

Rozi Plain - What A Boost

Rozi Plain

Album title: What A Boost
Record Label: Memphis Industries

Ghost-jazz serenity coasts in seamless tonal flows painted bright with uncanny poise superimposed over immaculate alien fairy-tales; “Boost,” boots soft narcotic software rinsed in whispered swinging, manicured splurges and game-maker restraint. Hushed, art-pop hymns sprout horns in formal proportions as tactful mastermind Rozi Plain plots, flip-flops and slow-bops, hosting tasteful, post-modern world-beat roaming in golden ratios, raving beneath well-behaved races.

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Ralph Heidel - Moments of Resonance

Ralph Heidel - Moments of Resonance

Ralph Heidel

Album title: Moments of Resonance
Record Label: Kryptox Records

Germany’s Heidel leads the collective Homo Ludens into knitting-needle cathedrals housing sharp scissoring rhythms, spacious chamber-music infusions and crashing cinematic windfalls. Fashioned from brooding jazz, sweeping classical bombast, collapsible ballet and Geiger-counter trance, “Resonance,” pounces in pondered reconnaissance; intuitive movements chasing break-through conclusions through enigmatic rapture, heralding swelling peril lurking in prog-rock preludes and trick-or-treat suites livid in devilish relish.

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Final Thoughts

From soft-spoken dreamboats EARTHQUAKE LIGHTS’ jazzy fleet-footed compassion, “Distress Signal,” to craggy chronicler CRAIG FINN’s bittersweet allegiances, “I Need A New War,” April goes for the melodramatic. Between alt-rock imp SOAK’s starry-eyed fly-bys, “Grim Town,” caterwauling prowlers PRIESTS’ illicit missions, “The Seduction of Kansas,” and power-pop Scots ASTRID’s well-earned return, “Fall Stand Dance,” menace abounds. Mix in dream-jangle wranglers THE PROPER ORNAMENTS’ heavy-lidded lucidity, “Six Lenins,” Broadway-rock despots FOXYGEN’s Philly-tilled killers, “Seeing Other People,” and saucy Aussie JESS RIBERO’s brazen, bullet-grazed , “Love Hate,” and curtain calls await us all.