Slipped Discs October 2011

Discs You May Have Missed
by John Noyd

Feist

Feist

Initial Thoughts

Whether digging FEIST’s solid, “Metals,” or consumed by RYAN ADAMS’s rejuvenating, “Ashes and Fire.” October boils with empirical miracles.  Musical chemistry further flirts in ruminating rapper ASTRONAUTILIS’ hard-hitting cosmic-country codas, “This Is Our Science,” and iconic California go-to guy VAN DYKE PARKS navigating Little Feat boogie and gospel-inflected Arlo Guthrie while masterminding potent components inside, “Arrangements, Vol. 1.“ Promising wonderfully unwound compounds, autumn’s elixir-riddled kinship compose musical recipes for adventure.


Disc Reviews


The Gift - Explode

The Gift - Explode

The Gift

Album title: Explode
Record Label: La Folie

Grand-standing anthems dismantling pop-rock parades, “Explode,” downloads delirium-steered queries, igniting enchanted rockets bursting in perfect bubbles and blockbuster bombast. Symphonic aeronautics scoring escalated elation and kaleidoscopic schizophrenia, Portugal’s The Gift’s majestic conquests swiftly lift psychedelic synths above seductive child-like exuberance to layered melodramatic bravery breaching soaring guitar contortions exploring surrendered arena-sized splendor. The Gift visits Chicago’s Double Door Oct 11th.

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Brown Bird - Salt for Salt

Brown Bird - Salt for Salt

Brown Bird

Album title: Salt for Salt
Record Label: Supply & Demand

Somber and sensual, brisk gypsy jigs saw bluesy two-steps and woodsy rocking-chair tattletales conjuring back-porch baptisms from sawdust dance-floors. The East Coast duo’s raspy pluck, rosin-heavy flights and twisted tempos season blackwater stomps. Boosted by devilish bravado, “Salt,” bows and curtsey, bone-thin and thirsty, packing galloping insights into gossip-bound ghost stories, wily waltzes where goblin gauchos prance, scamper and canter.

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Cuttooth - Elements

Cuttooth - Elements

Cuttooth

Album title: Elements
Record Label: Psychonavigation

Skating, wading and dissipating translucent infusions of disembodied beats drift in unfathomable distance, “Element,” vents crackling static tracking unanchored flavors stalking self-absorbed moorings. Mercurial voices elude sizzling snippets wafting in weightless space, Cuttooth’s ethereal material hides whispered mysteries beside suspenseful silences, confounding boundaries alongside bent connections, veiled trails and traipsing vapors tuned to rippling sympathies, random abandon and alien samples.

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Nick Lowe - The Old Magic

Nick Lowe - The Old Magic

Nick Lowe

Album title: The Old Magic
Record Label: Yep Roc

Finger-snapping smooth and country-hip cool, Wilco tour-mate Lowe’s 13th album wraps itself around sentimental eloquence, replacing pub-rock raves made famous in his early days with a captivating compendium of frisky, rockabilly lullabies, starry-eyed Merseybeat and crooning Texas swing. Ace back-up and star-filled cameos from Paul Carrack, Jimmie Vaughan and Ron Sexsmith insure, Magic,” dazzles with professional performances surrounding impeccable arrangements.

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VHS or Beta - Diamonds and Death

VHS or Beta - Diamonds and Death

VHS or Beta

Album title: Diamonds and Death
Record Label: Krian Music Group

Peek-a-boo grooves twist and shout unrolling house-rockin’ rhapsodies between steamy disco fevers streaming over non-stop strobe-lit fantasies. Throbbing spot-on hob-knobbing frolic in polished mosh-pit palpitations, robot hooks and dark romance, “Diamonds,” cuts rugs and fashion action-packed panache from dreamy sequencers and funky bass primed for gothic crimes. Four years since their last release, VHS or Beta mine refined, rock-hard tunes.

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Scott H. Biram - Bad Ingredients

Scott H. Biram - Bad Ingredients

Scott H. Biram

Album title: Bad Ingredients
Record Label: Bloodshot Records

Raw, rambling laments and roaring, storming bulletproof blues turn what often is Biram and one guitar into a cut-throat road-house smack-down. Tinderbox tempests unravel midnight confessions as ragged sour-mash mojo seeks open roads and honest hearts through rambunctious redemption. Covering Lightnin’ Hopkins and Bill Monroe, “Bad,” flags punk-roots magic from authentic Texas desperation, stirring gutbucket gumbo into fast-talking grifter wisdom

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Final Thoughts

This October churns out several cyclical-inspired gems. Magically philosophical within imaginative theatrics, MY BRIGHTEST DIAMOND’s lyrical art-rock inferno, “All Things Unwind,” pirouettes and flutters in transcendent gestures and impressive introspection while the vacillating post-folk pleasures of perceptive messenger, DAN MANGAN’s, quietly complex, “Oh Fortune,” flow over snowballing emotions swimming in steady, understated sincerity. Tranquilizing trances drawn from ancient ideas cradle Comoros Islander NAWAL’s evocative Sufi hymns to impermanence, “Embrace the Spirit,” as curious, quirky, Seabear multi-instrumentalist SOLEY’s radical, radiant fairy-tale appetizers, “We Sink,” concludes our melodic maneuvering through entropic endeavors