Seeing as LaRue’s a member of both Chicago’s dubby post-rock outfit HIM (one of the best live bands I’ve ever seen) and D.C.’s The Sorts, it’s not surprising that this album bears comparison to groups such as Tortoise and 5ive Style. Best known for his guitar work, LaRue here utilizes the digital studio to become a one-man band, with occasional help from guests such as HIM founder/drummer Doug Scharin and Fugazi drummer Brendan Canty. A playful and mellow instrumental rock album that makes excellent use of electronic possibilities without losing one bit of that great live feeling.
Various Artists Frontier Life: Banda Sonora
The soundtrack to Hans Fjellestad’s documentary Frontier Life mirrors the film by diving past the surface image of Tijuana to find the hidden culture that has arisen on the frontier. Members of Tijuana’s Nortec Collective and San Diego’s Trummerflora Collective contribute music created especially for the film. Drum machines, samplers and synth sounds combine to create quirky, bubbly bits of electro and edgy ambience, with the connections to the nortéo country music heritage well-hidden within the rhythmic patterns. Great music that is more laptop than Latin.
Various Artists Copehagen Dancefloor Classics II
Think of the dancefloors of the rare groove scene of the ’80s, with dancers strutting to the finest of jazz, funk and Latin tunes, and you’ll have a good idea where compilers DJ Wunderbaum and Master Fatman are coming from. Since Copenhagen served as a longtime haven to many expatriate American jazz musicians-including Kenny Drew and Dexter Gordon-the origin should come as no surprise. What’s surprising is the quality, depth and variety of these tracks, recorded in Denmark by musicians of all nations between the ’60s and the ’80s. A shining testament to the history of the Danish scene.
Gresham It’s Always Been There
At first, San Francisco’s Gresham makes me think of Jamiroquai. But where the British group’s singer Jason K could usually deliver soulful crooning and well-composed pop songs, Gresham’s vocals lack feeling, as if he were singing in his sleep. It’s an affect that works for a song or two, but by the end of the disc, we’re all suffering from heavy eyelids. This well-produced acoustic rock album has some nice solos and melodies, but the result is mostly torpid melodic loops that have no destination. This is the feeling of a bar band that makes you want to leave and drink elsewhere.
Model 3 Substance EP
This debut release on Dallas label Soundproof features a triplet of tight house tracks for those who like it deeper. The pick of the three is Cle’s stripped-down, modern acid house cut “Sustained Way,” which absolutely kicks on a loud system.
E.B.E. The Consequential Theorist
Lucas Rodenbush’s follow-up to “The Incidental Tourist” for Garth’s glorious Grayhound Recordings evokes the lost era of Epoch 90 and Bizarre Inc. Expect tweaky bleep loops, sharp beats and textured chords that sit nicely between the worlds of house and techno.
Mr Negative Star Spangled Banner
This forward-thinking (and brilliantly named) label sees Mr. Negative (Holmar Filipsson, Freestyle Man and Olivier Spencer) bring on a slut-driven, dirty hole of a track. It’s all paced-down beats, German spoken-word vocals and catty synths-you’ll lick it up.
Epod The Pursuit
Coco Machete releases its fourth to date, courtesy of New York soul collective EPOD. Brennan Green (Paper, Balihu) turns out an awesome retool replete with loose syncopated beats, warm organic keys and soulful, velvet-lined male vocals.
Califone Quicksand and Cradlesnakes
Califone’s second full-length inhales sun-baked dust and exhales pure shimmer. Combining desert mirages, slow motion tumbleweed sweeps, and shards of glitch, Ben Massarella and Tim Rutili get inventive, unafraid to mix startling tech textures into their alt-country palette. Deftly manipulated feedback and under-the-radar effects make for an album at once simply present and elegantly prescient. Gorgeously elliptical lyrics give way to subtle tool shed jam sessions that are anything but hokey. Think you hate country? Quicksand And Cradlesnakes rocks in a whispered language of grit and airy twangs, and you’d do well to get yourself a copy and listen to “Vampiring Again” on repeat.
Rob Dougan Furious Angels
Dougan and his 122-piece orchestra choir are best listened to on the run. If your life lacks grandiose chase scenes, a jog around the block will do, so long as you’re maintaining heightened endorphin levels. Maybe it’s because his most famous track, “Clubbed To Death,” has been soundtracked to death, most notably on “The Matrix,” but Dougan’s downtempo epics do seem most suited for those cinematic “special moments”: the thwarted rescue, the nail-biting climax, the triumphant return of the hero. Suspend your disbelief, ignore your grubby reality, immerse yourself in glittering Gotham, and avoid the overwrought vocal version.
