Slipped Discs February 2014

Discs You May Have Missed
by John Noyd

Natural Child

Natural Child

Initial Thoughts

Impatient for change? Shake those winter blues with brash Nashville boogie-rockers NATURAL CHILD’s twang-framed jukebox bop. “Dancin’ With Wolves,” or post-pop jitter-rock commandants PLUS/MINUS’ heavily leisurely New Wave-frayed, “Jumping the Tracks.” Meanwhile hopeful antidotes are extended with dream-pop renegades SHY HUNTERS’ moody interludes alongside crusading shadow-plays, “O That I Had Wings,” and exquisite romantic miniaturists EARLY WINTERS’ poignant well-informed pop, “Vanishing Act.” Still feeling stuck? Delight in these ennui-themed releases.


Disc Reviews


Fanfarlo - Let’s Go Extinct

Fanfarlo - Let’s Go Extinct

Fanfarlo

Album title: Let’s Go Extinct
Record Label: Blue Horizon

An orchestral collection bridging melodic-pop odysseys and blue-eyed space-age soul, Fanfarlo’s gloriously cordial morsels dissolve in sugar-coated opuses dipped in bittersweet majesty. A merciful circus rich in handsome anthems, debonair fanfares and suave hurrahs, “Extinct,” unflinchingly mixes tender indulgences tumbling from charismatic waxing against muscular pulses racing in sumptuous runs. The London-based quartet plays Madison’s High Noon Saloon April 8th.

(2270) Page Views

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Angel Olsen - Burn Your Fire For No Witness

Angel Olsen - Burn Your Fire For No Witness

Angel Olsen

Album title: Burn Your Fire For No Witness
Record Label: Jagjaguwar

Bruised crooning draped around unfettered coffee-shop garage-rock, “Burn,” churns and spurns with a raw, jagged backdrop of unvarnished electricity surging through crackling guitars and curdling words; unapologetic suggestions lapping brimstone ballads as haunted hearts feast beneath quivering lips and furrowed brows. Poised between salvaged salvation and tenuous redemption Olsen’s dreamy bohemian turns warrior-poet, courting sandpaper rampages and hypnotic rag-doll revenge. Angel plays Madison’s Revelry Fest May 3rd.

(2054) Page Views

Angel Olsen online:
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Purchase Burn Your Fire For No Witness on Amazon



Lost in the Trees - Past Life

Lost in the Trees - Past Life

Lost in the Trees

Album title: Past Life
Record Label: Anti-

Translating deeply personal soul-searching into universal yearning, LITT’s sparkling narcolepsy dances beneath shimmering electro-rock canopies; placid packages wrapped in dire desires, secret allegiance and graceful favors whose luminous loneliness circles broken hopes, stirring simmering images from carpeted martyrs. An unraveling labyrinth, “Past,” maps earnest journeys through uncertain currents, navigating gilded will with glowing vocals and solemn involvement through intimate instruments.

(2013) Page Views

Lost in the Trees online:
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Cymbals - Age of Fracture

Cymbals - Age of Fracture

Cymbals

Album title: Age of Fracture
Record Label: Tough Love

Brisk, posh, pick-pocket dance-rock spray-painted in pop-laden brain-candy, “Fracture,” gleefully manufactures giddy clubhouse bounce among shuffling bundles of cyber-jungle pounces. Flirting in perky serpentine pantomime and slurping from elastic ghost-rattled carafes of synth-rinsed glibness, Cymbals’ nimble hall of mirror lyrics slither around fidgety rhythms for half-laughing passions collapsing in fashionable traps; cosmopolitan monsters dressed in ballroom logic and post-modern panache.

(2025) Page Views

Cymbals online:
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Neneh Cherry - Blank Project

Neneh Cherry - Blank Project

Neneh Cherry

Album title: Blank Project
Record Label: Smalltown Supersound

Teaming up with Four Tet and Rocketnumbernine, sultry counter-culture suffragette Cherry weaves a stream-lined feline beat-street suite around mechanical-animal minimalism. Plain-spoken emotions splintering in forth-right insights and commanding semantics, the free-style rapper’s restless messages become prowling scowls caging unadulterated conveyances. Sparring in jarring techno-funky adventures, “Blank,” maintains an unwavering flame of jazz-punk jive; tough, gutsy hustles peppered in teasing clichés.

(2130) Page Views

Neneh Cherry online:
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New Bums - Voices In A Rented Room

New Bums - Voices In A Rented Room

New Bums

Album title: Voices In A Rented Room
Record Label: Drag City

A well-massaged barrage from time-tripping minstrels baptize proto-folk notions drifting in fancy meandering tangents; “Rented,” channels dueling acoustic blues through unfolding doldrums, tangled jangle and subtle Spanish trances. San Francisco’s NB quietly pilots sad, casual mind-benders through intricate kismet as languid macramé precision meets slow to mid-tempo mementos, drizzling weary, wilted heartache among sharp, smart guitars and drowsy still-water harmonies.

(2157) Page Views

New Bums online:
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Final Thoughts

As the shortest month February seems to attract albums with succinct titles. Encapsulating far-ranging pains and widespread beliefs, strong-willed songwriter DAWN LANDES’ fine-feathered honky-tonk, “Bluebird,” seductive studio illusionists PHANTOGRAM’s diabolical dream-rock, “Voices,” rambling folk-blues story-teller SUN KIL MOON’s wry autobiographical song-atlas, “Benji,” and perceptive connector MARISSA NADLER’s belladonna-spawned, “July,” cut to the chase. Narrowly defined but exceptionally broad-minded, synth-ministers GARDENS AND VILLA’s glittery pop-funk filigree, “Dunes,” gypsybilly rabble-rousers BUTCHER KNIVES’ rip-roaring, “Misery,” magical mix-master CEO’s polymorphic playground, “Wonderland,” and modern-rocker DOUGLAS KEITH’s solid, confident confidences, “Pony,” pleasantly condense expansive events.