Slipped Discs November 2015

Discs You May Have Missed
by John Noyd

Violent Mae

Violent Mae

Initial Thoughts

Roles and labels rule and enable as identity comes under scrutiny in this November’s album titles. Begin with modest mosh-pit whisperers VIOLENT MAE’s cool, gritty, “Kid,” whose unvarnished grown-up perspectives reflect and dissect; then swing into contemporary mountain-music multi-instrumentalist SAM GLEAVES’ hardcore folklore stories inside, “Ain’t We Brothers.” before finishing with oceanic trance-fancier ANNA VON HAUSWOLFF’s magnanimous animal-magic, swarming and wallowing in ominous squalor feeding careening cathedrals within, “The Miraculous.”


Disc Reviews


Lanterns on the Lake - Beings

Lanterns on the Lake - Beings

Lanterns on the Lake

Album title: Beings
Record Label: Bella Union

Swelling, compelling melancholy turns turbulent uncertainties into stormy scorn from vanquished angels. From subtle symphonics to labyrinth electronics, prowling guitars and gothic violins, “Beings,” seethes and seizes, casting curdling urges upon washed-out shores of wind-stripped islands. Lofty offerings from estranged maidens, bewitching dream-rockers LOTL flock around phantom camps flaunting haunted providence with searing atmospherics battling spacious impatience with ghostly commotion.

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The Eastern Sea - The WItness

The Eastern Sea - The WItness

The Eastern Sea

Album title: The WItness
Record Label: WhitelabBlacklab

Charging headlong into brave songs sheathed in armored calm and cavalier confidence, TES’ actively placid tactics release well-honed prog-pop chops dancing around waltzing novelist’s thoughts where cross-purposes surface in savvy brass, fleeting beats and sophisticated wordplay. Tender, nuanced movements cushion, “Witness,” in majestic suggestions from level-headed devils; hopeful toasts promoting compassionate facts draped in dramatic mathematics and dazzling jazz-rock acrobatics.

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Maserati - Rehumanizer

Maserati - Rehumanizer

Maserati

Album title: Rehumanizer
Record Label: Temporary Residence

Subterranean refrains engrained inside caged Krautrock aftershocks, the muscular, “Rehumanizer,” welds defiant alliances among hard-wired cyber-revisers, plotting and concocting spirited conspiracies for toppling mechanical overlords. Led by thundering drums and bass building skyscraping metropolises, Maserati’s single-minded monsters unleash cool moves beneath crashing thrashes, slamming industrial-strength ambushes with hypno-groovy space-jams commanding menacing momentum that takes no prisoners and shows no mercy.

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The Most Serene Republic - Mediac

The Most Serene Republic - Mediac

The Most Serene Republic

Album title: Mediac
Record Label: MapleMusic Recordings

Fissionable fictions written by curious observers scribbling Monday-morning epiphanies on cosmopolitan roadmaps, TMSR’s classy musical passages host bright concise cross-examinations mounted on enterprising melodies. Groomed illumination overflows in rosy, double-edged prose working casual magic with terse outbursts residing inside tireless desires as the esoteric collective’s action-packed, “Mediac,” ransacks sentimental conventions with charmed aplomb, manufacturing rallying ballads over sharp, driven rhythms.

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Soldiers of Fortune - Early Risers

Soldiers of Fortune - Early Risers

Soldiers of Fortune

Album title: Early Risers
Record Label: Mexican Summer

A heat-seeking cluster of scavenger bluster propels sweltering spells into blues-sutured garage-rock nirvana; “Early,” hurtles mortared support behind a loosely-knit super-group wailing away in blissfully blistering six-string raves. Out of the gate swinging, SOF’s raucous caucus rides an iron-clad herd in hammering rambling stampedes, raging against life-sapping apathy with cannonball abandon splattered in muscular gusto, friendly benders and cathartic kick-starters.

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Slow Hands - I’ll Find Me

Slow Hands - I’ll Find Me

Slow Hands

Album title: I’ll Find Me
Record Label: Wolf + Lamb Records

Playful studio guru and crafty master-dabbler, Slow Hands’ breezy sound-sculpted sequences paint swirling modern-pop murals depicting beat-driven whimsy in seductive productions; midnight flights igniting robo-guided sambas strutting through Spanish Harlem in buff, air-brushed percussion while lasered techno-funky soothsayers step out into hep discothèques. A slick, wicked playground, “Me,” lounges around silky fan-dancer cabanas, lurching animated circuses and celluloid funhouse pool-parties.

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Final Thoughts

Desperate times call for desperate measures as indicated by multiple November albums. Corner effervescent alt-pop purveyors PURE BATHING CULTURE’s spirited, hook-filled, “Pray For Rain,” before sorting through metamorphic synth-choreographer MARK MCQUIRE’s intricately programmed opuses, “Beyond Belief.” Revel in hobo-busker STEVE FORBERT’s weathered, character-sketches, “Compromised,” then slog through digital-jigsaw toggler ONEOHTRIX POINT NEVER’s sand-blasted harvests from Mad-Hatter lab apparatus, “Garden of Delete.” Lastly, light upon serene folk-sirens THE WAINWRIGHT SISTERS’s edgy bedtime nursery-rhymes, “Songs in the Dark,” while seeking rootsy reprieves from Swedish folk-rocker KRISTOFFER BOLANDER’s supremely believable, “I Forgive Nothing.”