Slipped Discs October 2013
Discs You May Have Missed
by John Noyd
Omar Souleyman
Initial Thoughts
Whether saturated psycho-savior BAILTERSPACE’s narcotic noise-rock drops and turbulent interstellar murmurs; “Trinine,” or howling gallows hellcats DEAP VALLY’s rabid slabs of blues-rock black magic, “Sistrionix,” fall album titles prove pleasingly puzzling. Is gibberish merely ignorance? Translatable labels from serpentine Syrian pop-star OMAR SOULEYMAN’s wonderfully wiry, joyously gyrating ciphers, “Wenu Wenu,” Spanish synth-rock rhythmists DELOREAN’s, frothy, boppy, “Apar,” and Nigeria’s Afro-buoyant TAL NATIONAL’s guitar-centered frenzy, “Kaani,” prove musical moods are universal.
Disc Reviews
Yamantaka // Sonic Titan - UZU
Yamantaka // Sonic Titan
Album title: UZU
Record Label: Suicide Squeeze
Space-age pagans with feminist tempers Y//ST don lavish masks for mythical marriages, wedding mermaid arias to drum-circle tsunamis and storm-trooper kabuki to prog-rock operas. Stammering in manic dynamics and tenderly surrendering to eclectic psychedelics, “UZU,” enchants through perilous romance, summoning pummeling thunder from cyber pied-pipers while staging courageous art-rock parades tossed from cultural pulpits and lost in steamy Valkyrie visions.
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Yamantaka // Sonic Titan online:
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kwes. - ilp
kwes.
Album title: ilp
Record Label: Warp
Sensitive, tentative, lava-lamp samples twisted around cautious, spotless ominous sonics, “ilp,” sculpts spectacularly tactile fragments into immaculate cinematic packages carefully crafted in humble wonder. Vacuum-packed catalysts dissolve in a dramatic smattering of abstract clatter as head-swelling velvet coats well-placed bass. Diagnosed with sound-to-color synaesthesia, kwes melts languid spaces into thoughtful processes with a deft R&B vibe suited to late-night grooves.
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kwes. online:
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Raccoon Fighter - ZIL
Raccoon Fighter
Album title: ZIL
Record Label: Papercup Music
A raucous caucus of secret-agent cool, lusty hustles and rock-blizzard boogie, RF slug and chug brazen side-street mayhem atop gloriously predatory choruses and scowling, prowling verses. Ravenous good-time pageants fashioning fuss-free struts, monster stomps and cathartic parties, the Brooklyn trio’s, “ZIL,” dives head-first into fiery low-rider pile-drivers; scorching fortresses whose take no prisoner sizzle ignites explosive doses of scenery-chewing cruises.
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Raccoon Fighter online:
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CAVE - Threace
CAVE
Album title: Threace
Record Label: Drag City
Slithering minimalism built from bebop chops and jagged jazz-funk romps, “Threace,” pieces subtle muscle to hip, interlocking riffs for panting jam-band trances whose understated patience uncoils marathon paragons of hypnotic providence and instinctive revision. Rocking to heady, rhythm-fed treasures thrashing in galactic dashes and pivoting syncopation, CAVE enslaves loose, elusive moves within jungle-fevered dreams; guiding driving jive around mind-melting stealth.
(2102) Page Views
Mike Donovan - Wot
Mike Donovan
Album title: Wot
Record Label: Drag City
Tangled truths braised in greasy twang and buffeted by Mexicali brass, Donovan’s woeful solo nurses wounded tunes with casual valor and candid rambles. From hungry country shuffles to barking garage-rock and rural slacker blues, the Sic Alps song-smith slings deep-fried soul, pitting petulant prose against dusty roads. Twisted six-string wisdom knots, “Wot,” into gravelly salvations, weary appeals and tenuous celebrations.
(2168) Page Views
Mike Donovan online:
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Emiliana Torrini - Tookah
Emiliana Torrini
Album title: Tookah
Record Label: Rough Trade
Painting bewitching pictures in post-millennial folk-pop, “Tookah,” produces an organic assortment of slinky jazz-chick calypso, willowy astral-ballads and sleek dance-beat rallies. A cross-pollinating angel piloting gentle landings under starry skies, Torrini’s cabaret princess carves delicious candle-lit synthesis slithering in flickering rhythms; silky, electro-pixie whimsy spins sophisticated dangers into sumptuous comforts as ravishing passions coated in mischievous teases net refreshing pleasures.
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Emiliana Torrini online:
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• Download Tookah from Amazon
• Purchase Tookah on Amazon
Final Thoughts
Feeding the cerebral, October’s music is delirious with delusion and ripe for enlightenment. Turn your mind’s eye to penetrating pop-rockers DEAD GAZE’s thick, pickled, “Brain Holiday,” before directing your affections to multi-national beat-scavengers MORCHEEBA’s sultry club-house soul, “Head Up High,” or dissecting your attentions regarding genteel jabberwocky song-doctor MATHEW SAWYER’s Aesop chamber-pop trimmed in prim British-folk overtures, “Sleep Dreamt A Brother.” Finally, melodic modern-rock’s swinging schizophrenic sentimentalists PAPA’s talented psychoanalysis, “Tender Madness.” and sweet alt-pop’s clamoring romancers YUCK’s luminous ruminations, “Glow and Behold,” revel in telling revelations and severed meditations.