Slipped Discs August 2019
Discs You May Have Missed
by John Noyd
Black Belt Eagle Scout
Initial Thoughts
From absolving proggers MAJOR STARS’ epic frenzy, “Roots of Confusion Seeds of Joy,” to tenuous dreamer BLACK BELT EAGLE SCOUT’s, folk-soul hopes, “At The Party With My Brown Friends,” August albums distill social motives. Interact or take a pass with cybertronic love-children GOOD IN THE DARK’s savage disco-chic, “If You Feel It,” snakeskin digi-swinger THE ROCKET SUMMER’s shadow-addled, “Sweet Shivers,” or insurgent metallurgists BLANCK MASS’ electro-catastrophic mosh-rock, “Animated Violence Mild.”
Disc Reviews
Modern Nature - How to Live
Modern Nature
Album title: How to Live
Record Label: Bella Union
Combining the creative forces behind Ultimate Painting and Beak, Modern Nature deploys calm post-rock opuses, embroidered maps hosting python sax and whispers draped over ubiquitous bass swimming in rambling trance; jazz-dappled appetizers bobbing in Krautrock punchbowls. A fluid, nuanced fairy-tale, “Live,” lives in backwater bliss, minimalist Zen head-trips circling feudal fields and pagan forests with unflinching mystery and intuitive moods.
(729) Page Views
Modern Nature online:
• Website • Facebook
• Download How to Live from Amazon
• Purchase How to Live on Amazon
Esther Rose - You Made It This Far
Esther Rose
Album title: You Made It This Far
Record Label: Father/Daughter Records
Genuine, sunny, quilting-bee dance-hall, “Far,” swings from mountain music to bayou folk peppered in Texas do-si-do doo-wop and rockin’ hillbilly twang; lazy Cajun fiddle whittling charming figures and Hawaiian slack adding to the effortless festivities. An old-school Grand Opry throwback, Rose goes for golden-throated nostalgia with clear rhymes, cantering cadence and classic heartbreak baptized in dandelion ear-candy and sisterly wisdom.
(761) Page Views
Esther Rose online:
• Website • Facebook
• Download You Made It This Far from Amazon
Electric Youth - Memory Emotion
Electric Youth
Album title: Memory Emotion
Record Label: Last Gang Records
Powder-puff purrs from silicon-chip mistresses and motion-sensitive sequences tweaked by studio-grooved gurus, Electric Youth pursues posh robotic blossoms plunged into plush narcoleptic luxury, curled vertigo inverted into moody, futuristic visions whizzing past opulent propositions. Slick, civilized seductions sprouting stainless angel-wings and soaring over palatial constructions, “Memory,” blends synthesized whimsy into uplifted artifice for voyeuristic insistence, tempting exemptions and sparkling exhibition.
(845) Page Views
Electric Youth online:
• Website • Facebook • Wiki
• Download Memory Emotion
• Purchase Memory Emotion
Possible Humans - Everybody Split
Possible Humans
Album title: Everybody Split
Record Label: Trouble In Mind
Splintered six-string acrobatics barreling through estranged jangle as militant rhythms charge toward sordid destinations, “Split,” rips and sniffs garage-rock riffs with anxious disdain and scholarly mockery, terse head-first affronts by tough punks flexing jam-band flair. A churning whirling finely-tuned unit, Possible Humans scatter a basket packed in flashy influences, spicing up simmering opinions with live-wire pig-piles and rambling carny double-talk.
(727) Page Views
Possible Humans online:
• Website • Facebook
• Download Everybody Split from Amazon
• Purchase Everybody Split on Amazon
Marika Hackman - Any Human Friends
Marika Hackman
Album title: Any Human Friends
Record Label: Sub Pop
Brawny, chameleonic pop asserting strong-worded verse into sultry declarations, Hackmann back-hands the establishment expressing diabolical gender politics whose smooth moves hide hard truths. Harmonies harboring cultivated barks dance beneath torch-song longing while cosmopolitan pondering flutters in overt flirting, turning, “Friends,” into frank, sweet menace colored in slow-burning funk; mutual-consent temptations bathed in tuneful ingenuity, coaxing emotional resonance from heady hallucinations.
(789) Page Views
Marika Hackman online:
• Website • Facebook • Wiki
• Download Any Human Friends from Amazon
• Purchase Any Human Friends on Amazon
Ainslie Wills - All You Have Is All You Need
Ainslie Wills
Album title: All You Have Is All You Need
Record Label: Ainslie Wills
Savvy ballads powered by subtly tumultuous sophistication, “Need,” sneaks fleeting details into tender heart-wrenching chemistry, taming multiple hungers through rich, empathetic vocals and smart, spirited lyrics, driving heartbeat percussion and lofty chamber-pop arrangements. Blessed in expressive restlessness, Wills builds teasing intrigue from intimate simplicity with grand candle-lit piano and head-spinning synths bursting into thirsty dance-floor grooves from lush, hypnotic solace.
(759) Page Views
Ainslie Wills online:
• Website • Facebook
• Download All You Have Is All You Need from Amazon
Final Thoughts
Family is where social motives begin and summer’s musical harvest reflect those roots with volatile indie song-cobbler OH ROSE’s perceptive street-cred dread, “While My Father Sleeps,” and back-road rhinestone poet JESSE MALIN’s narrative parables, “Sunset Kids.” Introduce angelic skywriter JAY SOM’s embracing alt-pop fantasia, “Anak Ko,” (My Child) to corn-fed court jester TAYLOR HOLLINGSWORTH’s wry, half-baked boogie, “Tap Dancin Daddy,” and it’s all relatable. Further extend the connection with carefree daydreamers PARSNIPS’ cross-eyed kinderpop, “When the Tree Bears Fruit,” and Aussie-pop supergroup SEEKER LOVER KEEPER’s nurtured panoramic urgency, “Wild Seeds.”