Slipped Discs February 2015

Discs You May Have Missed
by John Noyd

Via Tania

Via Tania

Initial Thoughts

Uncertainty rules as February album titles flutter in unpredictable predicaments and paralyzing possibilities. Tentative benefits from soft-prog twee-popped hipsters LEAPLING‘s phantasmagorical flourishes, “Vacant Page,” iconic indie-rock scruff-muffins JULIANA HATFIELD THREE’s fresh-pressed dream-jangle, “Whatever, My Love,” and twinkle-toed locomotives DUTCH UNCLES’ candy-coated praying-mantis dance-bop “O Shudder,” turn ambivalence into symphonies. Finally, enchanting chamber-pop princess VIA TANIA‘s self-titled collaboration with star-dusted THE TOMORROW MUSIC ORCHESTRA proves the future is up for grabs.


Disc Reviews


Schneider and Kacirek - Shadows Documents

Schneider and Kacirek - Shadows Documents

Schneider and Kacirek

Album title: Shadows Documents
Record Label: Bureau B

Unflinching ninja transmissions from dial-tone twilight zones, pinball-alley galleries sprinkled in dark, sparse cosmic larks, “Shadows,” scurry, merging sonic-purrs stamped with animated equations, sautéed in electro-galvanized tidal-pools and roasted in velvety analogue. Scholars of Kenyan beats, Schneider and Kacirek’s deft touch works sly, subtle tactics into galactic magic establishing unexpected stretches within impulsive outbursts, coaxing trans-dimensional gremlins from deep-space radio.

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The Black Ryder - The Door Behind the Door

The Black Ryder - The Door Behind the Door

The Black Ryder

Album title: The Door Behind the Door
Record Label: The Anti-Machine Machine

Vivid psycho-tribal simmering washed in haunting folk-goth simplicity, The Black Ryder’s starlit spider-web tapestries glow, draped in swamp-gas visions born from tumble-weed fevers. Finger-picked gifts rippling in slow-boiled riffs and disembodied choirs, “Door,” unlocks celestial textures, unleashing bare-boned moans from drowsy, drowning rapture; delicate treasures whose screeching, skyscraper-blues smolder, console and seduce through diaphanous passions, woefully floating below shark-infested loneliness.

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Breakfast in Fur - Flyaway Garden

Breakfast in Fur - Flyaway Garden

Breakfast in Fur

Album title: Flyaway Garden
Record Label: Bar/None

Lined in hallowed art-rock harmonics, jazz-jam sandwiches and indie-folk tectonics, “Garden,” plants lush, buzzing hives alive with ghost-layered dream-pop baptized in coddling nautical washes and perched alongside rootless coos and precious egg-shell melodies. Effervescent alchemists, Breakfast In Fur color and cuddle, coasting on golden odes hosted by silver tongues; erecting escape-plan fantasies while manufacturing platonic blossoms and forming stormy choruses.

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Quiet Company - Transgressor

Quiet Company - Transgressor

Quiet Company

Album title: Transgressor
Record Label: Modern Outsider

Tender hearts and dry wit mix with rollicking pop-rock fits dipped in double-barreled alt-country sizzle; charming carny barkers Quiet Company serenade cowboy romantics with synth-synched roller-rink wisdom and scorching back-porch payback. Rousing shouts, Velcro hooks and sharp, smart anecdotes wake courageous dreamers, restless toe-tappers and gentle thieves as, “Transgressor,” prowls incessantly; alert to love’s dangers, life’s ironies and music’s power.

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Twin River - Should The Light Go Out

Twin River - Should The Light Go Out

Twin River

Album title: Should The Light Go Out
Record Label: Light Organ

Tough-chick blitzes decked out in barb-wired noise-pop, “Light” ignites thick, lipstick tiffs strangling mega-twang angles for reverb-drenched sentiments: secret-crush brush-offs from twisted pulp-fiction vixens. Initially a folk duo, the expanded Twin River retain their vocal-centric tendencies but add gnarly guitar-slinging armies to launch an avalanche of garage-rock power-ballads skilled in swooning Watusi maneuvers, booming tambourine-stacked hand-claps and hazy, shoe-gaze squalor.

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Gang of Four - What Happens Next

Gang of Four - What Happens Next

Gang of Four

Album title: What Happens Next
Record Label: Metropolis Records

Spackled in crackling percussive patterns, squealing-wheel guitar and flagrant pavement-bass, Gang of Four’s well-executed confrontational abrasions cultivate brash, cyber-briar patches inhabiting rock-bionic labyrinths. Founding-member Andy Gill and company enlists high-powered cameos to hurtle post-punk thunder past punchy funky pile-drivers as the intrepid, “Next,” treks slithering across industrial deserts in scavenger caravans. The formidable Four play Chicago’s Park West March 13th.

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Final Thoughts

Seeking relief from winter’s stymied speculation, February releases possess pleasant affections. Whether cozy folk-composer and former Joyce the Librarian troubadour MARTIN CALLINGHAM‘s supremely serene solo debut, “Tonight We All Swim Free,” the piping-hot bayou-boppers REVEREND PEYTON’S BIG DAMN BAND‘s rockin’ gumbo, “So Delicious,” or epic folk-metal connector MT. EERIE’s static-straddled goulash mythology, “Sauna,” comfort is here in abundance. Other brotherly sustenance comes from dance-paneled cannonball ANTHONY NAPLES’ loose, post-groove adventure, “Body Pill,” and hip, hurly-burly burgermeister FATHER JOHN MISTY‘s chiding folk-gospel fandango, “I Love You Honeybear.” Let the healing begin.