Slipped Discs - November 2008
Discs You May Have Missed
by John Noyd
Obama wins 2008 Presidential Election
Initial Thoughts
Politics – that which separates us from yet shows our kinship to rutting beasts, illuminating the best and worst of mankind. So as America celebrates its voter’s freedoms and inherent right to populist democracy, November’s theme elects to showcase exemplary discs whose titles suggest presidential perspectives, citizen sympathies and royal headaches while successfully negotiating creative vetoes. Like the song says, everybody wants to rule the world, I say, lead the way.
Disc Reviews
Dears - Missiles
Dears
Album title: Missiles
Record Label: Dangerbird
Quietly solemn, slowly simmering, The Dear’s revamped, stripped-down sound buckles down and re-emerges more evocative and powerful for the restraint. Grand without grandstanding – the navel-gazing textures give way to no-nonsense questions as hypnotic nod-rock wakes into precarious storms. Propelled bullet-like into darkness, “Missiles,” grazes, stuns then penetrates, erecting temples of temptations within subtle, sophisticated mazes.
(3222) Page Views
The Dears online:
• Website • Wiki
• Download Missiles from Amazon
• Purchase Missiles on Amazon
Todd Rundgren - Arena
Todd Rundgren
Album title: Arena
Record Label: Hi Fi Recordings
Protool pomp etch race car riffs as producer-performer Rundgren’s rails against time and empires, reactivating big-hair hammerhead rock for deep themes, exposed schemes and metaphysical convictions. Unleashing an arsenal of retaliating romps and machine-tooled machismo, “Arena,” channels ballistic outrage and foot-stomping frustration into iron-clad wake-up calls, rapid-fired blasts roasted over fiery blue-eyed soul.
(3328) Page Views
Todd Rundgren online:
• Website • Wiki
• Download Arena from Amazon
• Purchase Arena on Amazon
Winterpills - Central Chambers
Winterpills
Album title: Central Chambers
Record Label: Signature Sounds
Sweet harmonies wrapped around rich, dark laments, Winterpill’s defenseless elegance waltzes around articulate sleep-walking angst. Minuets and rhapsodies receive pop-rock arrangements and post-modern wittiness, sagas reduced to reclusive tunes washed in deliberate, cinematic poetry and tastefully electric diplomacy. Spinning literary nuance, “Central,” reassembles foreign films with methodical logic, unearthing our delusions with melodic confidence.
(3081) Page Views
Winterpills online:
• Website • Wiki
• Download Central Chambers from Amazon
• Purchase Central Chambers on Amazon
Friendly Fires - Friendly Fires
Friendly Fires
Album title: Friendly Fires
Record Label: XL
An elastic calamity coldcocking ping-pong bass around popcorn jungle percussion - FF’s edgy, pop-disco romances pack plenty of jagged hot flashes, capturing groovy futures beneath neon-saturated satin. Smart and spastic, FF’s new-wave bounce hits the ceiling before landing on the dance floor, swiveling synths and crackling guitars shrieking in slippery hiccups and sputtering funk.
(3458) Page Views
Friendly Fires online:
• Website • Wiki
• Download Friendly Fires from Amazon
• Purchase Friendly Fires on Amazon
Panics - Cruel Guards
Panics
Album title: Cruel Guards
Record Label: Music Allies
Throaty vocals cushioned in strings and brass cast stoic shadows across jangly refrains as the solid, soulful Aussie rock of, “Cruel,” croons cool, stone-faced fables. Shifting slave chain beats between rousing hooks, The Panic’s valiant hearts are well-prepared for soldiering on, delivering swelling, resilient emotions exploding into proud pleads and open-armed anthems.
(3229) Page Views
The Panics online:
• Website • Wiki
• Download Cruel Guards from Amazon
• Purchase Cruel Guards on Amazon
Peachcake - What Year Will You Have the World?
Peachcake
Album title: What Year Will You Have the World?
Record Label: Awesome Planet/Subtractive
Nostalgic, encyclopedic, underground and ironic,”Rule,” compiles pre-fab pageants from socio-cultural colloquialisms and old-school computer doodles. Whip-smart cybernetic pep ride sine waves texting paisley-flavored polemics, knob-twisting fixes input smirking circuitry, robotic loops program mood-altering samples tripped, wrung and processed. Peachcake’s madcap android bonfire blinks, re-thinks and stutter-boogies to algorithmic bliss.
(3411) Page Views
Peachcake online:
• Website • Wiki
• Purchase What Year Will You Have the World? on Amazon
Final Thoughts
If tomorrow frightens you escape into the past. Try the B-side bonanza of UNBUNNY’S warm, frank indie-folk, “Sensory Underload.” Escape into absurdity. STEVE SINGH’s, “Heavy Metal Sunset.” melts zany potluck-pop into bubblegum acid-rock. Escape to distant lands. Amazonian Chicha masters JUANECO Y SU COMBO’s psychedelic garage-rock, “Volume 1,” dissolve cultural preconceptions. Finally, escape into all three with MAX RAABE & PALAST ORKESTER’s roaring twenties Weimar cabaret, “Heute Nacht Oder Nie.”