Sometimes, when geniuses slip out of sight, you forget that they are still plying their trade, hidden away from machinations of the media. After Pan American’s two-year hiatus (and with their last album slightly less then desirable), scrutiny is high. Their new album delivers, demonstrating that words could never convey the understated eloquence of Pan American’s brilliant musical theorem. A songwriter’s poetic melding of the organic and digital, filled with delicate twilight hues, Quiet City is absolutely essential.
Various Artists Ye Olde Barn
Full disclosure: this reviewer is originally from Wisconsin, and there is no f**cking way he’s fair, because he loves Dan Doormouse, and Addict is Doormouse’s label. Intelligent folks who grow up in the decaying Great Lakes rust belts are punk rock before they ever hear Fugazi and experimental way before they’ve seen their first Stan Brakhage film. They beautifully translate this unhinged wrath into luminous and humorous experimental noise, called breakcore, and it couldn’t be more finely represented than it is here on Ye Olde Barn. You suckers can buy your way a little bit closer to the exotic Wisconsin species by picking up this ass-kicking compilation.
Salvatore Tempo
Salvatore is a Norwegian group whose John McEntire (Tortoise)-produced LP, Tempo, is finally washing up Stateside. Oh, how we should thank the Viking raiders with our fallow virgins! Tempo is lyric-less rock ‘n’ roll, with Brazilian-tinged percussion and Americana’s song structure and instrumentation, all of it immersed in a spirited passion for arrangement. This is your post-rock record of the year.
Prince Po Hold Dat
Why Richard X’s A-side “Mix One” isn’t the version to make it onto Po’s full-length The Slickness is a damn mystery to me. It’s the underground’s “In Da Club” and, were there justice in this world, it would rival 50 Cent for radio domination. The album mix on the B stands for bunk.
M. Sayyid Outside the Box
The first solo release from Anti-Pop Consortium’s most overlooked member ain’t a drastic departure. Stunted electronic minimalism and cerebral wordplay rules here. Heat Sensor drops by for some tasty old-school production, and Sayyid returns the favor on their “Touch” EP, which is wound up tight as an elastic brain about to detonate. In a similar galaxy, Daly Operations (on Future Primitive) steps up with a searing take on electro dancehall in “Fitna Get Paid.”
M. Craft I Can See It All Tonight
Martin Craft draws from a diverse array of sources: bossanova, instrumental hip-hop, folk rock and what is now called indie rock. And though he’s obviously taken in a lot of music that’s preceded him, he doesn’t sound like anyone else in particular. But I Can See It All Tonight proves a frustrating listen. Its songs can’t help sounding so…normal. So busy waiting for a commercial breakthrough. So diluted. So conformed to the conventions of pop radio. So, yes, Martin Craft may be huge in the near future-perhaps even the indie rock equivalent of Norah Jones-but his descent into blandness negates the potential maverick lurking under the surface.
Rhythm King & Her Friends Get Paid
For all the kids with dead end jobs and a taste for beatbox rhythms, “Get Paid” may be the electro pocket-pop anthem of the summer. Buffalo Daughter spins it into sugar and Ladytron turns day into night. Also on KY: Sex in Dallas thinks Berlin rules and that we all deserve a good fuck. No disagreement here. A brilliant remix from French Fragz is the jam here.
Various Artists They Keep Me Smiling
If you don’t already have a cantilever of pharmaceuticals holding the corners of your mouth up, the Hisham r”ecently turned ex-Black Dice” Baroocha-curated They Keep Me Smiling will work as both personal and universal epistle. In association with New York fashion house United Bamboo, TKMS focuses on the new psychedelic folk/noise underground of New York. And from the sun-specked folksong of Samara Lubelski to the acid-Kraut ramblings of Gang Gang Dance and the pagan-noise workouts of Angelblood, wonderful yarns are spun, with a gorgeous booklet to boot.
How To Kill The DJ Exhibit [B]
More rare goodies from Ivan Smagghe and crew. Exhibit [B]’s long lost reissue of Australian group Severed Heads’ “Dead Eyes Opened” is edited brilliantly by France’s Joakim; and Smagghe and Fany Corral’s edit of “Essit Musique” is acid the way it should be. On another TS release, art hipster Sir Alice eschews the club for more aggressive experimentalism, sounding like Gina X fronting Neubaten. Search both these out.
Jugoe Spooky Monkey/The Dubbled Up EP
A combo of music that falls between the cracks but seems sure to light many a summer barbeque fire over the next few months. There’s ambient dub hop (courtesy of LA’s Spooky Monkey) that Dr. Rubberfunk transforms into upbeat hip house. Cleveland’s Jugoe drops some progressive reggae á la Brooklyn’s Redbud imprint and Apeanaut turns it into the kind of jelly Rick James wants all the damn time.
