Slipped Discs September 2021
Discs You May Have Missed
by John Noyd
Amyl and the Sniffers - photo by Jamie Wdziekonski
Initial Thoughts
Positive thoughts prop September albums. Welcome blunderbuss punks AMYL AND THE SNIFFERS’ buckshot body-politics, “Comfort to Me,” embrace cyber-Svengali OCOEUR’s scorched terraformed storms, “Connections,” and open psyche-pop daydreamers BERRY’s narcotic, “Vault of Light.” Join intrepid sound-connector SCHOOL OF X’s stratospheric ear-candy, “Dancing Through the Void,” or stick with deadpan psycho-sexual phantoms BLUE LICK’s hallucinatory, “Hold On Hold Fast.” before visiting British indie-rock stalwarts THE BEVIS FROND’s literate grit, “Little Eden.”
Disc Reviews
Smoke Bellow - Open for Business
Smoke Bellow
Album title: Open for Business
Record Label: Trouble In Mind
Ticklish rhythms cut snug rugs hugging upbeat breakdowns as Smoke Bellow’s curious schematic attitudes box, grok and clock art-rock concoctions into disembodied toggle-pop dodging jagged patterns from rickety riffs with robotic bossa nova, hiccup funk and polished goth. Microwaved tropics romp on velvet conveyor-belts as, “Open,” stokes synthesized precision in frazzled apathy, hypnotic epoxy soldering eerie fearlessness to buoyant clairvoyance.
(398) Page Views
Smoke Bellow online:
• Website • Facebook
• Purchase Open for Business on Amazon
Future Crib - Full Time Smile
Future Crib
Album title: Full Time Smile
Record Label: self-release
Mellow pedestrian contentment informs the mega-pleasant, “Smile,” with miles accrued through lo-fi drive leaping into groovy boogaloo and folk-pop lobs sweetened in home-grown innovation. Cordial primordial congeniality, Future Crib ride gnarly waves and crash on welcome shores, fireside vocals whispering into the dark and howling at the moon commune in wry tunes where affable majesty shifts from benevolent to eccentric.
(335) Page Views
Future Crib online:
• Website • Facebook
Christopher Paul Stelling - Forgiving It All
Christopher Paul Stelling
Album title: Forgiving It All
Record Label: self-release
Magically fathomable, fashionable acoustic-roots narrator, Christopher Paul Stelling’s earnest pearls strung on sincere endearments connect common threads with gratitude, perspective, insight and wisdom. Progressive fretwork begets whimsical finger and wrist pirouettes accompanying articulate fidgeting within counterpoint tournaments, filling, “Forgiving,” with responding reprises hiding low-flying surprises, folk chord cornucopias poured over lightning runs and self-censored confessions, quicksilver trills savoring tasty appraisals.
(558) Page Views
Christopher Paul Stelling online:
• Website • Facebook • Wiki
We Were Promised Jetpacks - Enjoy The View
We Were Promised Jetpacks
Album title: Enjoy The View
Record Label: Big Scary Monsters
Heart-wrenching Zen bending grand rock melancholy into life-affirming whirlwinds, “View,” holds tenderness inside a tempest; subsiding, colliding and confiding in plaintive refrains hanging onto dear life among tremolo-soaked guitars and sine-wave synths. Flushed in muscular bluster and raging in heavenly embraces, WWPJ’s intimate vigilance rushes from apologetic to hyper-kinetic, rescued crooners swinging hard with out-stretched hand anthems underwriting clenched-fist grooves.
(365) Page Views
We Were Promised Jetpacks online:
• Website • Facebook • Wiki
• Purchase Enjoy The View on Amazon
Public Broadcasting Service - Bright Magic
Public Broadcasting Service
Album title: Bright Magic
Record Label: PIAS
Berlin floats over Public Broadcasting Service’s immaculate synth-washed vacuums hermetically etched in Krautrock beats sealed in vaporous liaisons; an electronic posse traveling from celestial epiphanies to cinematic discotheques with poised metropolitan envoys deploying utopian dopamine. Monumental temples worshiping circuitry while encrypting culture, “Bright,” celebrates technology and ingenuity with classical splashes and Olympian synergy exhibiting intricate symmetry smoldering below glow-stick symphonies.
(328) Page Views
Public Broadcasting Service online:
• Website • Facebook • Wiki
• Purchase Bright Magic on Amazon
Heartless Bastards - A Beautiful Life
Heartless Bastards
Album title: A Beautiful Life
Record Label: Sweet Unknown Records
Impatient consolation teetering between giddy swimming against the tide and gliding mildly over obstacles, “Beautiful,” offers empathetic medicine prescribing philosophical resolve wrapped in accomplished melodic pop. Impish invites running scenic sprints around log-cabin cabaret, Heartless Bastards’ joie de vivre gleans wonderful sunset descents touched by mystic indie-rock, lush ballroom ballads, and hot-wired Americana. HB play Madison’s Majestic Theater September 23rd.
(381) Page Views
Heartless Bastards online:
• Website • Facebook • Wiki
• Purchase A Beautiful Life on Amazon
Final Thoughts
Whether elliptical hipsters BUFFALO DAUGHTER’s off-beat mind-sweeps, “We Are the Times,” earworm wordsmith ADA LEA’s streetlamp vamps, “one hand on the steering wheel and the other sewing a garden,” or trip-hop mixologists SAINT ETIENNE’s ultra-sultry reality-check, “I’ve Been Trying to Tell You,” autumn albums are pro-active. Engage submarine mood-harpooners SUUNS’ ever-observant espionage, “The Witness,” hang with smarmy charmer COLLEEN GREEN’s 100-watt wit, “Cool,” and compete between pastel-pop rhythmists MINI TREES’ lovestruck cartwheels, “Always in Motion,” digi-dreamboats COLD BEAT’s aggregated synth-rock nostalgia, “War Garden,” and smiling stylists CONDITIONER’s suave flirtatious, “Conditioner.”