Slipped Discs - July 2012
Discs You May Have Missed
by John Noyd
A Place to Bury Strangers
Initial Thoughts
July’s humble summer souls consider things greater than themselves, branding musical perusals in ecclesiastical titles addressing spiritual consequences and moral imperatives. Witness sizzling subterranean parishioners A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS’ idolizing icicle-rock uprising, “Worship,“ then congregate around soul-funk minister TWIN SHADOW’s pleading, “Confess,” before absolving American-based East African SAMITE’s river-bank tranquil, spider-web banquet, “Trust” and blessing cyber-Hawaiian and multi-talented trickster DELICATE STEVE’s upbeat appeasement, “Positive Force.” Finally, power-popster DENT MAY plays UW-Madison’s Terrace July 12th promoting the cheerfully divine, “Do Something.” Repent, transcend and reaffirm..
Disc Reviews
Purity Ring - Shrines
Purity Ring
Album title: Shrines
Record Label: 4AD
Amorphous sources stir molasses acid, disco-posh propositions casting submarine dreams blissfully adrift in ghostly oceans. Techno-mermaids snare purring swirls from watery rainbow fodder while cantilevered sequences polish, “Shrines,” into chronic electronic dominance. Other-worldly warbling inside proto-future coolness, PR’s cyber-centric sensuality pelts curt chirps and pert sonar boners past wobbly anomalies. The Canadian duo performs at Madison’s High Noon July 16th.
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Purity Ring online:
• Website • Facebook • Wiki
Eleni Mandell - I Can See The Future
Eleni Mandell
Album title: I Can See The Future
Record Label: Yep Roc
Silky smooth coos brewed in rich bewitching mysteries from casually bashful infatuations, Mandell’s proud high-brow country-soul lavishes jazz-drizzled melancholy over torch-song teases lulling supple alley-cat passions around folk couture, sad bachelor ballads poured over cuddly cocktail rebuttals. Trembling gems on thorny crowns and Chantilly lace, “Future,” speculate in tarot cards and tamed mustangs, beatnik chamber-pop that undulates in twilight sighs.
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Eleni Mandell online:
• Website • Facebook • Wiki
• Download I Can See The Future from Amazon
• Purchase I Can See The Future on Amazon
Matisyahu - Spark Seeker
Matisyahu
Album title: Spark Seeker
Record Label: Fallen Spark Records
Kabala collages tying dance grooves to ancient roots, “Seeker,” tweaks world-beat Kasbah cavalcades stitching marvelous carnival ambience to high-stepping sermons dipped in Hasidic raps and shined by post-nuclear studio maneuvers. Invigorating debater Matisyahu’s charismatic mantras and glossy hospitality fuse a modern, exotic product coated in electric messages, palatial musical mazes dropping wisdom among spoken-word interludes and hypnotic North African segues.
(2222) Page Views
Matisyahu online:
• Website • Facebook • Wiki
• Download Spark Seeker from Amazon
• Purchase Spark Seeker on Amazon
Cosmo Jarvis - Think Bigger
Cosmo Jarvis
Album title: Think Bigger
Record Label: The Middle Ground
Coy sleep-on-the-floor troubadour and tongue-wagging scalawag versed in barn-stormin’ boogie, cottage-pop nods and cheeky hayseed romps, Jarvis carves rustic punk busking into swinging, string-assisted folk-rock. Stacking bodacious stomps and impish twisters beside sly irony and giddy wit, the imminently amiable, “Bigger,” configures cap-sized happiness through wide kaleidoscope eyes, placing hammock banjos and child-recital ocarinas among woozy strings and blistering guitars.
(2283) Page Views
Cosmo Jarvis online:
• Website • Facebook • Wiki
• Download Think Bigger from Amazon
Eternal Summers - Correct Behavior
Eternal Summers
Album title: Correct Behavior
Record Label: Kanine Records
Bratty New Wave smatterings crackling in glazed paraphrases and filed under existential bile, “Correct,” erects a shiny grimy testament to splashy nineties-styled bombast. Restless, festive midnight DJs wriggle around dream-pop gossip and counter-culture kiss-offs, Virginia trio’s feigned narcotic disdain ramps up cultivated anarchy; FM tendencies wrapped in temptress reveries lovingly rehashing neon-lit night-trips inside ricochet-rattled heavens tuned to party-going pilgrims.
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Eternal Summers online:
• Website • Facebook
• Purchase Correct Behavior on Amazon
The Eastern Sea - Plague
The Eastern Sea
Album title: Plague
Record Label: White Lab Black Lab
Bleeding hearts over lean, vigorous rhythms, college-authored indie-rockers TES’s post-baroque opuses breezily weave beckoning beacons; arpeggiated chords sandwiched between reverential splendor circling soaring poise drenched in soft-spoken choruses. From demure to dynamic, the Austin quartet’s urgent coercions bridge modest, methodical confidence redirecting surf-pounding countenance forged from informal retorts. Chaste, impatient, plaintive clockwork cadence, “Plague,” spreads tender blends beneath steadfast syncopation.
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The Eastern Sea online:
• Website • Facebook
Final Thoughts
Time twisters arise in fistfuls from pop sophisticate JOE JACKSON’s hepcat, jet-pack look-back interpreting Ellington compositions on the up-to-date jazz-fusion excursion, “The Duke,” to finger-lickin’ traditions courting contemporary lyrical visions in KELLER WILLIAMS and THE TRAVELIN’ MCCOURYS’ mountain stream string-fest, the sharp, whip-smart, “Pick.” Vivid Icelandic imaginists MUM rescue lost demos prophesying electronica’s post-millennial chemical abstractions in the snazzy patchwork mashes, “Early Birds,” while timeless revisers, punk-jangle geishas and chopped bop juggernauts SHONEN KNIFE’s jagged gala, “Pop Tune,” reaffirms heyday hardcore J-pop. The iconic outfit performs August 3rd at UW-Madison.