Slipped Discs November 2014

Discs You May Have Missed
by John Noyd

Memphis Dawls

Memphis Dawls

Initial Thoughts

November sponsors several albums grounded in commitment. Feral devils DOPE BODY’s spastic electro-punk attack, “Lifer,” and cool studio sculptor ANDY STOTT’s ghost-programmed mosaics, “Faith In Strangers,” vow empowered allegiance while compassionate folk-maverick NAT JOHNSON’s sweet, lyrical encouragements, “Neighbour of the Year,” honor honest solidarity. Add scintillating synth-vixen LIA MICE’s ultimate Euro-pop promise, “I Love You,” alongside flapper-savvy songbirds MEMPHIS DAWLS’ full-throttled folk-gospel, “Rooted in the Bone,” and deals are sealed.


Disc Reviews


Megafortress - Believer

Megafortress - Believer

Megafortress

Album title: Believer
Record Label: Driftless Recordings

Slathered in ominous studio crackle and lacquered in stripped-down astral-jazz waxing, “Believer,” undertakes an electro-pillaged pilgrimage gathering sparse low-key soliloquies sparking ambient soul-baring humanity. Stark sequestered treasures reveling in dark, unvarnished reflections, Megafortress builds seething electric requiems whose meditative hesitations reverberate in perceptive confessions; baptized transmissions cleansed in crisp penetrating sentiment, steadied by level-headed revelations and colored in wondrous struggles.

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Buzzcocks - The Way

Buzzcocks - The Way

Buzzcocks

Album title: The Way
Record Label: 1-2-3-4 Go Records

Backed by a new drummer and bassist; songwriters and founding members Shelley and Diggle storm the palace gates with curt pertinent couplets and snarling barroom guitars. Blunt pop-laden punk spiced with decisive social dissection, “The Way,” blazes through breathless rock testaments written by hungry class-ravaged curmudgeons ripe for a fight and armor-plated statesmen armed with forthright bite and open-hearted bark.

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Torn Hawk - Let’s Cry and Do Pushups At The Same Time

Torn Hawk - Let’s Cry and Do Pushups At The Same Time

Torn Hawk

Album title: Let’s Cry and Do Pushups At The Same Time
Record Label: Mexican Summer

Embryonic buzz-saws mount chattering catalysts as, “Pushups,” ricochets between cyber-writhing synths, fiendish drum-machines and thrashing axes mastering chain reactions; laser-guided geysers pump short-circuited quirks over spring-loaded explosions raining pulsating mayhem beneath well-crafted commotion. Micro-managing cinematic sound-factories, flight-controlling maestro Luke Wyatt aka Torn Hawk swoops down on a polyglot of runaway nanobot fantasies whose playfully layered mazes surround collapsing musical maps.

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Run Boy Run - Something to Someone

Run Boy Run - Something to Someone

Run Boy Run

Album title: Something to Someone
Record Label: Sky Island Records

A jaw-dropping combination of Gaelic bluegrass and mountaintop chamber-folk the Arizona quintet’s fiddles, mandolins, cello, bass and guitars borrow from history-rich traditions to foster a scholarly hodgepodge underwritten in moonshine and molasses. Led by strong female harmonies and nimble pickin’, “Something,” skips past rootsy troubadours to branch into torch-song confidants sauntering in enchanting shanties, worldly-wise Americana and twinkling Texas swing.

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Lace Curtains - A Signed Piece of Paper

Lace Curtains - A Signed Piece of Paper

Lace Curtains

Album title: A Signed Piece of Paper
Record Label: Female Fantasy

Flying off the page, the wry, slightly sinister mug-shot pop-rock inside, “Paper,” delivers underhanded candor, footloose truths and gritty hubris with a journalist’s eye for detail and a crooner’s ear for tunes. Hep-cat chit-chat to rile up the riff-raff, Austin-based Lace Curtain’s clever squirrel-cage case studies uncover underground scoundrels among groovy sleuths; employing hard-luck pluck to construct solid, rollicking ruckus.

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The Shivas - You Know What To Do

The Shivas - You Know What To Do

The Shivas

Album title: You Know What To Do
Record Label: K Records

Radical slackers mashing fab platters from the early sixties, The Shivas shake, rattle and roll with rousing garage-rock raves and shaggy surf-punk parades stomping on irreverent teen-age angst through reverb-soaked hillbilly blues, juvie beatnik strolls and party-hardy basement doo-wop. Carrying a torch for scorching R&B rip-offs, “You Know,” revs up barb-wired twang for some back-lot boogaloo steeped in rapturous nostalgia.

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Final Thoughts

Wandering between being evasive and ambivalent, November albums offer wildly wishy-washy options. From swirling Scottish indie-rockers THE TWILIGHT SAD’s mega-textured existentialism, “Nobody Wants To Be Here And Nobody Wants To Leave,” to covert sound-merchants TARWATER’s vast theatrical skullduggery, “Adrift,” and dreamy emo-industrialists FRANCISCO THE MAN’s rock-hard, “Loose Ends,” the inconclusive meets uncertainty with marvelous results. Whether in techno-pop jockeys SUN BEARS!’ unbridled sci-fi dance-rock, “Future Sounds,” or big-picture jazz-master MIGUEL ZENON’s artistic montage of immigrant interviews and big-band jams for the celebratory melting-pot odyssey, “Identities Are Changeable,” speculation proves irresistible.