Slipped Discs November 2011

Discs You May Have Missed
by John Noyd

Electric Six

Electric Six

Initial Thoughts

Hand it to November. Body bits litter late autumn’s landscape from sultry cyber-pop stalkers THE GOOD NATURED’s seductively muscular mini-album, “Skeleton,”  to kick-ass Detroit disco-rockers ELECTRIC SIX’s delectably gnarly beat-box moxie, “Heartbeats and Brainwaves/” Keep a close eye on corrosive caballeros WE WERE PROMISED JETPACKS’ cascading waves overtaking squelched meltdowns, “In the Pit of the Stomach,” while digesting the anniversary compilation, “Fully Bearded: 15 Years of Tommy Touch in Dub.”


Disc Reviews


The Dø - Both Ways Open Jaws

The Dø - Both Ways Open Jaws

The Dø

Album title: Both Ways Open Jaws
Record Label: Six Degrees

Assembling trembling, tongue-twisting tempos this pair of European collaborators crafts squealing helium realism juggling pixilated perspectives around cartoon calliopes and woozy hallucinogenic melodies. Fusing quaint upbeat joy to foxy rockin’ swagger, jazzy spell-binding finery and hippie-rock kaleidoscopes, Jaws,” never over-indulges, soliciting mysteries with innocent consistency, playfully waylaying conventional expectations in a frothy broth of bewitching keyboard carnivals performing enchanting arabesques.

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John Wesley Harding - The Sound of his own Voice

John Wesley Harding - The Sound of his own Voice

John Wesley Harding

Album title: The Sound of his own Voice
Record Label: Yep Roc

Giddy literacy enlivens the already lively folk-pop mockery and jester-peppered cheer, “Voice,” cradles modern-day life-lessons lined with ticklishly articulate irony and sly subtext. A toastmaster backed by an all-star cast culled from R.E.M. and the Decemberists, Harding illustrates, extrapolates and occasionally speculates, dispensing battling narrators, bantering agitators and slanted sociology in neatly-packaged hooks wrapped around witty novellas harboring intellectual revenge.

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Treefight for Sunlight - A Collection of Vibrations for your Skull

Treefight for Sunlight - A Collection of Vibrations for your Skull

Treefight for Sunlight

Album title: A Collection of Vibrations for your Skull
Record Label: Friendly Fire

Brimming with spinning day-glo piano runs, trippy choirboy whimsy and tumbling pop-rock glee, TFS’s cartwheel zeal manifests youthful truths into carefree catalysts; magical infatuations spawning epic fascinations, arm-stretching sections nestling plush harmonies over Danish retro-psychedelia. Crashing clouds of angelic after-thoughts led by radiant sages, “Vibrations,” bounces merrily knitting rainbow ballets stoked in action-packed happiness, shimmering hymns kicking in quivering climaxes

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Gauntlet Hair - Gauntlet Hair

Gauntlet Hair - Gauntlet Hair

Gauntlet Hair

Album title: Gauntlet Hair
Record Label: Dead Oceans

Strafed in hyperbolic claustrophobia, mashed clattering and cataclysmic metaphysics, Gauntlet Hair’s groovy psycho-swampy rock resonates in unchained jangle bouncing soundly around syncopated reverb and euphoric Morlock melodies. Jungle-punk and soul-blues influences catapult the Chicago duo’s wind-tattered caverns through avalanche-managed planets. “Gauntlet Hair,” grows freefall cacophony for cosmic canvases, scathing, raving romper room operas drenched in glorious noise and industrial ecstasy

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Jonathan Coulton - Artificial Heart

Jonathan Coulton - Artificial Heart

Jonathan Coulton

Album title: Artificial Heart
Record Label: Jocoserious

Smug, scrubbed and lovingly nurturing slick, swift charisma plus warm, unconstrained humanity, Coulton’s cajoling polemics pitch snickering curveballs, off-beat promises inside anti-hero overtures. Produced by TMBG’s John Flansburgh with vocal contributions from Suzanne Vega, John Roderick and Sara Quinn, “Artificial,” pumps out effortless guitar-looped waltzes, punchy New Wave wing-dings and buffed studio-savvy ballads, successfully launching a dazzling, sugar-coated geek-pop cabaret.

(2157) Page Views

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The Loom - Teeth

The Loom - Teeth

The Loom

Album title: Teeth
Record Label: Crossbill Records

Bravely wavering between well-heeled alt-rock squalor and rustic murder-ballad pageantry, “Teeth,” embraces embroidered warrior voyages. Swooning in musical courtship, admonished sonics stir sea-worthy furies for elegantly tweaked chamber-folk fevers. The Loom’s hushed rustler’s rhetoric and wild-eyed folk-revival fosters sprawling banjo to brass passages, rip-roaring chorales built from war-torn madrigals reaping bonfire finales. The Brooklyn quintet plays UW’s Rathskellar November 12th.

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Final Thoughts

Besides strolling hobos CAVEMAN’s shaggy psycho-folk quagmire, “CoCo Beware,” para-military noise-pop synth-surfers TEETH’s insolent, “Whatever,” and wide-eyed punk-rockers GIRL IN A COMA’s inescapable, “Exits & All the Rest,” corpulent performances continue.  Slip into the skin of electro-acoustic rhythmic minimalists BRANDT BRAUER FRICK ENSEMBLE’s deconstructed post-modern jazz brain-candy, “Mr.. Machine,” then ride MARCHFOURTH MARCHING BAND’s funky summit of stone-cold soul, bubbling ska and sizzling R&B, “Magnificent Beast.”  Finally, dissect thrilling, trilling indie-rock conquerors PEGGY SUE’s non-traditional folk-tapestry trajectories, “Acrobats,” and whispering cinematic specters STILL CORNERS’ twilight-tinted gossamer, “Creatures of an Hour.”