Slipped Discs September 2010

Discs You May Have Missed
by John Noyd

Cas Haley

Cas Haley

Initial Thoughts

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.


Disc Reviews


The Young Scamels - Tempest

The Young Scamels - Tempest

The Young Scamels

Album title: Tempest
Record Label: File 13

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.

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Underworld - Barking

Underworld - Barking

Underworld

Album title: Barking
Record Label: OM Records

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.

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Interpol - Interpol

Interpol - Interpol

Interpol

Album title: Interpol
Record Label: Matador

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.

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Fences - Fences

Fences - Fences

Fences

Album title: Fences
Record Label: Onto Entertainment (ADA)

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.

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The Clientele - Minotaur

The Clientele - Minotaur

The Clientele

Album title: Minotaur
Record Label: Merge Records

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.

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Kristin Hersh - Crooked

Kristin Hersh - Crooked

Kristin Hersh

Album title: Crooked
Record Label:

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.

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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.”