Slipped Discs - May 2008

Discs You May Have Missed
by John Noyd

Babylon Circus

Babylon Circus

Initial Thoughts

Returning to a recurring theme, May focuses on our ears’ tendency to identify sound with places. Not only do our seven releases’ titles refer to location but each play with our ideas of where music comes from, culturally and historically. Deceptively eclectic, some offer music’s disguises to appear authentically as themselves while others adopt differently displaced genres and end up belonging to none of them. Move to the beat and across the world with new eyes set on familiar horizons.


Disc Reviews


Rupa and the April Fishes - Extraordinary Rendition

Rupa and the April Fishes - Extraordinary Rendition

Rupa and the April Fishes

Album title: Extraordinary Rendition
Record Label: Cumbancha Records

A collective of multi-lingual flings, teasing beats, pouty polkas and tangled tangos – Rupa’s basket of salty and sultry mingles the sad with pizzazz and elegant despair with can-can chicanery. Novelties surrounded by melancholy, hot jazz laced with sad fiddles and muted trumpets, “Extraordinary,” hops, skips and tumbles into the heart.

(6890) Page Views

Rupa and the April Fishes online:
WebsiteWiki

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Purchase Extraordinary Rendition on Amazon



Hayden - In Field and Town

Hayden - In Field and Town

Hayden

Album title: In Field and Town
Record Label: Fat Possum/Hardwood Records

Ambling piano, far-away guitars, trusty harmonicas and Flaming Lips synths - “Field,” testifies, witnessing fresh injections into home-grown alt-folk idioms. Whether playing casual toe-tapping social observer or humble, hum-able broken-hearted tumbleweed, Hayden stamps his grizzly delivery over badlands ballads, newspaper narratives and space-age emo.  Simple yet sumptuous, “Field,” offers sadly hopeful relief.

(3081) Page Views

Hayden online:
WebsiteWiki

Download In Field and Town from Amazon
Purchase In Field and Town on Amazon



Charlatans - You Cross My Path

Charlatans - You Cross My Path

Charlatans

Album title: You Cross My Path
Record Label: Self Released

Loaded with juiced dance grooves, hyperbolic bass and crashing grandeur, “Cross,” elevates earthly relationships to Valkyrie dimensions forging legendary status in classic rock fashion. Courtly rock that takes no prisoners, the Charlatan’s unsubmissive mission snarls with glam, gung-ho struts and game, come-hither glories, triumphantly butting heads against soul-drenched working-class and kick-ass new wave.

(3201) Page Views

The Charlatans online:
WebsiteWiki

Download You Cross My Path from Amazon
Purchase You Cross My Path on Amazon



Skybombers - Take Me to Town

Skybombers - Take Me to Town

Skybombers

Album title: Take Me to Town
Record Label: Albert Production

Swinging from tasty bluster kicking apart adolescent frustration to thunderous raspberries, this precocious Aussie quartet shows Outback belligerence via sometime in L.A. - howling through rockabilly garage toss-offs and knocking out pitch-perfect, stomping mad scowls. Walloping pop-rock, “Town,” produces scuffling, amped-up six-string skiffle, jammed inside El Kabong riffs and brief, greasy hooks.

(3348) Page Views

Skybombers online:

Download Take Me to Town from Amazon
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Lili Haydn - Place Between Places

Lili Haydn - Place Between Places

Lili Haydn

Album title: Place Between Places
Record Label: Nettwerk records

Drawing from her Philharmonic upbringing to a blossomed activism, P-Funk sessions, Page and Plant reunions and Herbie Hancock face-offs, Haydn’s violin and voice soar over ghostly poked solos and feather bed productions.  Patience, playful and predatory, “Place,” adds gypsy mystery, oriental weaves and industrial steam to cosmopolitan lullabies, evocative fantasies and slicked-back jive.

(3139) Page Views

Lili Haydn online:
WebsiteWiki


Purchase Place Between Places on Amazon



South - You Are Here

South - You Are Here

South

Album title: You Are Here
Record Label: Bluhammock

Bristling British brass, foreboding atmosphere, decisive drums and shimmering harmonies, “You,” boldly positions itself between love, life and logic, quietly announcing no clear winner. In South’s articulate and nuanced chamber pop, graceful melodies and boyish bravado simmer in jangle-y electricity, leaving smart first impressions and lingering after-thoughts as dreamy illuminations sail among military shadows.

(3564) Page Views

South online:
WebsiteWiki


Purchase You Are Here on Amazon



Babylon Circus - Dances Of Resistance

Babylon Circus - Dances Of Resistance

Babylon Circus

Album title: Dances Of Resistance
Record Label: Mr. Bongo

French Rastafarians concocting klezmer cabarets, high-stepping ska and hard-hitting horns, BC’s happy madness conjures politics and polygraphs around a roadrunner’s bar mitzvah. A frothy, funky frenzy of zany syncopation and mellow patois, “Dances,” is a high-octane carnival of concern juggling jungle fevers and spiraling calliopes, gypsy sunshine, festive traditions and revolutionary spunk.

(4902) Page Views

Babylon Circus online:
WebsiteWiki

Download Dances Of Resistance from Amazon
Purchase Dances Of Resistance on Amazon



Final Thoughts