Reviews – Page 7 – The Resident Sound

REVIEW: Riki – Riki (2020)

Riki is an electro pop album just shy of Italo disco. Long moody vocals and synth layering may remind you of Hounds of Love era Kate Bush, while heavy use of counter point melodies make Riki’s opening tracks shine with emotion (even if bordering on busy at times).

Lead single Napoleon sounds straight out of Italo disco icons Glass Candy’s playbook. Swelling pads and blippy high melodies complement upbeat drums and driving bass synth. Nearly everyone has a playlist this is a must for. But we begin see more artistic risks being taken with Know, an ethereal psychedelic track full of reversed snares and notable panning. Slow throbbing momentum is built up slowly, leaving a trail of fading reverb in its path.

Unfortunately, the second half of Riki is very true to most 80s pop albums: forgettable.

Earth Song’s excessively processed (auto tune?) vocal layering not only feels out of place with the song’s production, but also with the album’s overarching pastiche. There is something about Earth Song that doesn’t feel as thought out as much as the other songs. Neither fun or well crafted, the listener is left unable to escape from Earth Song’s cheesy lackluster lyrics (okay, what’s more 80s than that?).

Second to closing track Come Inside redeems some interest in the album. Wobbling synth kicks things off before a steady disco beat comes driving in. Riki’s short Ladytron-esque vocals are a rewarding departure from previous tracks. In a way, Come Inside would make a better Gorillaz track than any of the songs on Gorillaz – Humanz (2017). What can be learned from this? I’m uncertain.

Even when rolling on the rear wheels, Closing track Monumental is able to get us across the finish line. An ethereal vocal intro brings us to one of the album’s greatest dance-floor potential tracks. A processed break beat fill and its choice of synths divert from the album’s rigid 80s retro A-side but, at this point, that was long abandoned.

B-side filler or a lack in care of crafting each song have stained the album’s high marks. A shame, as there is great work on this album. The craft behind songs Napoleon, Böse Lügen (Body Mix), and Come Inside just aren’t shown on most other tracks. Aside from its lead single hit potential, Riki is a lukewarm electro pop album unable to reap the seeds it has sown.

But “don’t panic” if you like Riki. We have some recommendations we really believe in.

For fans of: Kate Bush, Glass Candy, David Borden

Like Riki? Give these a listen: e•motion, Knitted Abyss, Peter Zimmermann

REVIEW: KAPUTT – Carnage Hall (2019)

Part of the new wave of new wave, or of the Mark E Smith-speaking ‘post-punk’ vein coming out of the UK right now, KAPUTT is perhaps the most overlooked and under appreciated group out of this new batch of bands. Carnage Hall explores the sweet and aggravating with a surrealist bent.

KAPUTT builds off the sound of its saxophone fueled dance-punk predecessor James Chance, while ditching the self-important disdain (and racism) for short melodic motifs interlaced in a roller coaster of walking disjointed riffs. Carnage Hall features punched up versions of all the songs on KAPUTT’s 2017 demo while new angles are explored with tracks like Accordion. Using the band’s standard countering angular motifs, Accordion manages to pull off the beach side relaxation we could all use in a time like this. Think About Your Face explores a level of funky festivities not seen previously by group, while Suspectette’s sweet and caring nature could work the right listener into a good cry.

Carnage Hall demands a level of focus, each note (and there are many of them) only as rewarding as the attention you give them. This is why a song like Hightlight! is not only great fun, but also necessary to Carnage Hall’s vibrancy. Highlight!’s emotions are accessible and needed. Falling saxophones lead organically into a stomping chorus, backing and lead vocals come together before the chorus turns to its anthemic instrumental b-part.

KAPUTT wastes no time jumping back into the fray with following Hi! I’m The Wasp. Updated since its debut on Demo 2017, The Wasp is still its slow, creepy self, though now with filled out backing vocals and light reverb.

The whole album is more or less this way. Far from over produced, but no longer the dry bare-bones tracks presented on the demo. The songs are all strong to start with, but with just the right amount of production they really shine in their full potential.

Their face-value goofiness is reminiscent of prog-punk legends The Cardiacs. But like The Cardiacs, under any face-value goofiness is an emotionally intelligent current of decision making. Surely, KAPUTT is the thinking-man’s Shame.*

There are far too many ‘standout’ tracks (Parsonage Square in particular) to point to a handful and say ‘try these’! If you’re a seasoned new wave/punk fan searching for refreshing energy, or simply looking for something offering a slight challenge, Carnage Hall can’t be beat.

*Not to knock Shame. Songs of Praise is a great album and given the chance you ought to see them live.

For fans of: Crack Cloud, James Chance & The Contortions, Devo

Like KAPUTT? Give these a listen: The Cardiacs, Polyrock, Clinic

REVIEW: Wun Two – The Fat EP (2012)

If you’re approaching the album for the first time, The Fat EP may not seem as fresh as it did in 2012. Since then, Wun Two’s previously signature lofi style has been copied ad nauseum. The hip-hop meets ambient sound of ‘lofi beats’ has become synonymous with low effort imposters and white guys shopping at Muji, but maybe that’s unfair.

At least lofi beat making had a lot to offer. It’s been accessible, easy listening in our modern age of anxiety. The Fat EP acts less as an album of songs and more as one larger ambient whole. Songs fade in and out, neatly cropping the vocal tracks being accompanied.

It’s 24 minutes of jazzy boom bap hip-hop, drenched in the fuzzy warmth of an old 45. Relatively subdued and nonabrasive in its sonic qualities, The Fat EP‘s hyper-repetitive beats lure the listener into a relaxed state. With nearly all focus on atmosphere and sonic aesthetics (tonal qualities), lofi beats stretch from their hip-hop roots towards ambient meditation.

So why Biggie? While his delivery is notoriously smooth, his lyrics may be the furthest thing from soothing. Biggie Smalls is front and center for the whole ride, yet The Fat EP couldn’t be less about him. We can run through the accreditation of Biggie Smalls, but that would be missing the point. The Fat EP is a delivery system for the sonic aesthetics and emotions Wun Two wishes to get across.

Most tracks on the album work as short interludes or sketches of sonic ideas. Remixes of Machine Gun Funk, Big Poppa, and Dead Wrong are all under 2 minutes. The vocal tracks of Big Poppa, Suicidal Thoughts, and Dead Wrong all appear twice with different backing tracks, yet feel fresh on their second run through.

Suicidal Thoughts is perhaps at its most emotionally potent in its first incarnation on the album, ‘suicidal.thoughts’. Losing all credibility with the hip-hop heads of my youth, I’ll go ahead and say this is my favorite version of Suicidal Thoughts to ever appear. Same goes for Party And Bullshit (party.n.bullshit), which would have made for a more emotionally potent closer than the weaker second incarnation of Suicidal Thoughts.

It’s everything you need from the lofi beat scene in one convenient package, sans boredom.

For fans of: People Under The Stairs, Madvillain, DJ Shadow

Like Wun Two? Give these a listen: Funky DL, Amerigo Gazaway, Jehst

REVIEW: Marginal Man – Identity (1984)

Let me break it to you. They’re better than Fugazi, they’re better than Black Flag, and they’re absolutely better than anything coming out of the NYC hardcore scene at the time. They’re Marginal Man, the 5 piece hardcore punk band from DC.

Rising from the ashes of Artificial Peace’s breakup, former members Steve Polcari (vocalist), Mike Manos (drummer), and Pete Murray (guitar) teamed with bassist Andrew Lee and guitarist Kenny Inouye culminating in one of the best punk records of all time: Identity.

Identity is perhaps one of the most under appreciated records in American punk history. With the raw energy of Minor Threat and varying artistic influences of Dead Kennedys, Identity’s unwillingness to stagnate would be refreshing even if it was released in the past 30 years.

Identity precedes the slow grinding emotional struggle of Black Flag’s My War while simultaneously birthing the start of what eventually lead to emo. Songs Fallen Pieces and Torn Apart’s slow grueling rhythm is complemented by Pandora’s Box’s wiry agility, the fast flying punk you might expect from Dead Kennedys or Crucifix. The whole album a patchwork of distinct guitar licks and tricks, drummer Mike Manos and bassist Andre Lee are tuned in and driving, created the perfect rhythmic bed for Marginal Man’s fierce guitar and vocal work.

You can check out an interview with Kenny Inouye from 2012 on This Is Albatross.

For fans of: Minor Threat, Black Flag, Rites of Spring

Like Marginal Man? Give these a listen: Beefeater, Red C, Geisha Girls

REVIEW: Susumu Yokota – Symbol (2005)

Upon pressing play, the listener is immediately plunged in a current of ethereal introspection. A wide range of classical samples are seamlessly interlocked, sleight of hand shifting to synth melodies and back again. Symbol is beautiful, to put easily. It frames clearly what ills us, like a mirror reflecting back to us our shadow selves.

Only a few songs into the album, stabbing strings on Traveler In The Wonderland emphasize the song’s looping nature while countering samples fade in and out in a haze of reverb. Even as things grow more festive, an air of mystique is always at hand on Symbol. Following track Song of The Sleeping Forest is no exception. A 60s prom dance clashing with electronic personified exotica, melancholic tenderness carry the listener on a cloud of air before fading into the night.

Many songs, Flaming Love And Destiny for example, are far too bold to simply be considered ambient (as this album usually is). Even songs 3 or 4 minutes long seem to fly by in seconds. Still, the album is incredibly meditative, introspective, and begging to draw out the wonderment (however enlightening or horrifying) we carry deep within ourselves.

Symbol is a masterwork in musique concrète and contemporary classical composition. Each song on the album is intricately crafted, vocal samples obscured or altered resembling only the fading memory of human life. Maybe none more so than I Close The Door Upon Myself, a sonic interpretation of painter Fernand Khnopff’s 1891 symbolist work I Lock The Door Upon Myself, or perhaps of other work inspired by it. Either way, Symbol‘s introspective element is made abundantly clear in a statement such as this.

Yokota died, 54 years old, on March 27th, 2015 after a “long period of illness.” His exact cause of death is undisclosed. While Mr Yokota released many records since the early 1990s, one could spend their whole life exploring each sound, technique, and the myriad of emotional interpretations that saturate Symbol.

Susumu Yokota is a genius, a master of his craft gone too soon. Symbol is perhaps the most beautiful album released so far in the 21st century. Quoting Youtube user Ed Barret on an upload of Blue Sky and Yellow Sunflower from Symbol, “If I were to leave a piece of art this stunningly beautiful when I die, I wouldn’t need an epitaph.”

For fans of: Tortoise, Steve Reich, Tim Hecker

Like Susumu Yokota? Give these a listen: Brian J Davis, Adam Weikart, Slow Blink

REVIEW: Sophia Chablau e Uma Enorme Perda De Tempo – Sophia Chablau e Uma Enorme Perda De Tempo (2021)

Sophia Chablau e Uma Enorme Perda De Tempo is an indie rock band from São Paulo, Brazil. Formed in 2019, the band recently released their self-titled debut album in 2021.

Sophia Chablau e Uma Enorme Perda De Tempo opens with Pop Cabecinha, a burst of jazzy indie rock punctuated by the band’s lo-fi punk energy. Vocalist and guitarist Sophia Chablau’s fragile but versatile vocal style holds its own even as the album shifts between rougher lo-fi and more delicate indie songs.

The soft intimacy of Se Você is covered in a trailing fog of reverb. The song slowly swells and swells, crashing down upon the listener like a giant wave taking us out to sea, awash in melancholia. Drummer Theo Ceccato’s delicate cymbal work guides us through further melancholy on the following track Fora do Meu Quarto.

Over the next few tracks a more distorted and lo-fi quality takes over. Blown out bass and guitar feature prominently on Deus Lindo, yet don’t distract from the music at hand.

Jazz influence throughout the album comes across more directly on song Hello, another intimate guitar and vocal track with a distinct warmth behind it. This light jazz quality across the album can draw similarities to the French pop genre yé-yé.

Similar to yé-yé artists is the band’s willingness to incorporate just about any influence. Starting with the indie rock, the band proceeds to branch out through intimacy, lo-fi and jazz before eventually embracing a healthy level of funk trappings on song Debaixo do Pano. Returning to a more straight laced indie sound on Moças e Aeromoças, Chablau and company branch out one last time, closing on the indie disco track Delícia/Luxúria.

Overall, Sophia Chablau e Uma Enorme Perda De Tempo is an accessible and fulfilling work that rewards the highs and lows of our emotional palettes. We recommend you go give this a listen.

For fans of: Interpol, Frankie Cosmos, April March

Like Sophia Chablau? Give these a listen: Hospitality, Jack Hardy, Klarcnova

REVIEW: Peter Zimmermann – VAPORDISCO (2019)

Playing with the same 80s synth aesthetics nearly dragged to death by Stranger Things and the synthwave craze, Peter Zimmermann’s budget disco sound and cover art aesthetics are still exciting for Italo disco fans both dedicated and casual (such as myself).

VAPORDISCO gives itself to its namesake. Smooth sample chopping weaves behind the scenes of slow grinding rhythms complemented by arpeggio synth lines while 80s pop samples are pitched down to create the muddied effect of vaporwave classics.

Warm low kicks and reverb-hazy snares teeter back and forth, complemented by nearly inconsequential hi-hat patterns. Only on the 4th track E X H A L E does VAPORDISCO’s rigid 1s and 3s drum machine pattern face any kind of shake-up (which even then is minimal). Unfortunately, tracks like I NEED YOU fail to enhance or create anew from its sample usage. While the songs aren’t bad by any means, it can leave someone familiar with the source material feeling fairly underwhelmed.

The album’s energy does pick-up midway through with THE NIGHT; a pumping ethereal rollerskating jam sounding like Depeche Mode producing Michael Jackson’s Thriller. From here the album is more artistically ambitious, energized and ready to roll. It’s-, well, thrilling. The overarching theme of the album proceeds to pay off almost entirely from the midway point.

Now energized, VAPORDISCO’s hedonic approach lends itself to the fun and levity one needs to appreciate the non-political escapism that vaporwave has to offer. Once sold on the album’s fun side, VAPORDISCO allows itself to go slightly moodier with VAPORBOI before setting like the sun with hazy closing track YOUR BODY.

Time to hit the rink.

For fans of: Glass Candy, Night Tempo, Naked Eyes

Like Peter Zimmermann? Give these a listen: e•motion, Jaguardini, Niveum

REVIEW: Amon Tobin – Foley Room (2007)

Released in 2007, Montreal-based composer Amon Tobin’s Foley Room offers itself to oddity while never acting as a novelty. Opening track Bloodstone is a psychedelic trip of unnerving melancholia heaving and swaying like a choppy sea. A sort of ‘could be’ scoring style for a would be Edward Gorey film.

The album proceeds into a musique concrète / rock hybrid with proceeding track Esther’s. Motorcycle engines rev up and pull out in time to a sample of Dick Dale’s rapid tremolo picking, each source material processed and warped perfectly over a thudding rhythm section.

Every piece of Foley Room is mixed and processed in such a way as to keep things from sounding choppy or jagged. It’s a justified use of post-production polish that leaves things sounding smooth, atmospheric and at times quite cinematic.

“The idea was to get source material that was pretty basic. I got drones mostly from the Kronos Quartet. Patrick Watson gave me little piano melodies that I then cut up and re-arranged, and even mixed them with some vinyl piano to make different melodies from. It was all treating everything in the same way: a rock falling, a musician, a vinyl sample. All these were treated as an objective source, and then applying the arrangements and the creation of the music afterwards,” said Amon Tobin in a phone interview with Radio Free Canuckistan, a Canadian music blog dedicated to “musical musings from the frozen north.”

As we get further into the album, more and more commonly ‘electronic’ elements work their way further into center frame. Big Furry Head slams and twists with all the industrial bravado of Author & Punisher, its groove reminiscent of industrial dub mastermind The Bug.

Near closing tracks Ever Falling and Always give the listener a relative moment of levity on an otherwise dark and unnerving album. Choir vocals lift us over a field of twisting and crackling rhythmic sounds on Ever Falling, while fun bass lines and childlike vocals come through a fog of bombastic reverb-drenched drum breaks on track Always.

Originally developed in the 1930s in France, the techniques and theory behind musique concrète have expanded greatly due to technological development and the accessibility of equipment. We see the proliferation of reel to reel recording equipment post-WW2, followed by cassette tapes in ’63, and later the first digital sampler in ’69. This whole time music studio equipment is becoming better and better, granting more facilities and allowing artists more control with post-production manipulation.

Enter the digital audio workstation, or DAW. With computers, the facilities granted to the artist are greater than ever, yet the momentum behind musique concrète’s development and experimentation has fallen by the wayside. Musique concrète is a term most often relegated to analog-based ambient music strewn carelessly across the internet. On the other hand, with Foley Room, Amon Tobin pushes musique concrète forward, never sacrificing the music for the clear-cut regulations imposed upon the genre.

“Basically, I want the music to come first, the satisfaction I get from making music. Whatever idea I have to begin with, I don’t want it to restrict where the song could go or how good it could be. I don’t want to be saying, ‘Well, I’d like to do that, but it doesn’t fit into my concept.’ It’s not going to happen. I want the music to be king, and everything else just facilitates that.”

For fans of: Igorrr, Meat Beat Manifesto, The Bug

Like Amon Tobin? Give these a listen: Brian J Davis, Barbed, skintape

REVIEW: Knitted Abyss – Bad Lassies (2019)

Bad Lassies is the 2019 debut album by Australian experimental pop duo Knitted Abyss. Members Lucy Phelan and Anna John bring an ambitious level of creativity to darkwave and post-punk that their ‘nu goth’ contemporaries (I won’t call them peers) fail to deliver. Bad Lassies‘s quirky eccentricities distance the band from their contemporaries’ dismal artistic stagnation, yet these quirks never feel gimmicky. No, Bad Lassies’s emotional delivery is only ever enhanced by the artistic choices made.

Album opener Attention is a minimal post-punk track reveling in its loneliness. Squelchy synth bass and light drum machine work give the band an almost early-80s Bananarama rhythm section, blanketed in the more morose qualities of gothic post-punk classics. From here things get darker, less pop oriented, but never losing a distinct sound established from the start.

Inspiration and stylistic elements are lifted and fitted together well without ever falling victim to pastiche. Elements of darkwave, post-punk, shoegaze and Ladytron-esque electronic pop are prevalent and well mixed together to create something new. Knitted Abyss dismisses the queue of bands lining up for ‘cool factor’ authenticity by creating something distinctly their own. Lucy Phelan and Anna John created a well-crafted album, and therefor don’t need to mold to any perceived idea of ‘how things should be’ within a genre.

For fans of: Crack Cloud, Waitresses, Crash Course in Science

Enjoy Knitted Abyss? Give these a listen: Casket Girls, Cold Choir, Tropic of Cancer

REVIEW: Brian J Davis – Original Soundtrack (2008)

Original Soundtrack is a 42 minute ambient behemoth played on 20 DVD players across 20 TVs. At the helm, multimedia artist Brian J Davis with a customized mixer, fading in and out endlessly looping DVD menu audio.

Original Soundtrack captures so well the liminal, undefined space and cold dreamlike quality of televisual media within an audio format. Nothing is quite real. Sonic statements and aesthetics endlessly peel away at each other. Original Soundtrack is where the show is between the channels. It is the under lit lobby in the movie theatre of the mind. What are movies and television other than cold concrete dreams?

Reverb drafts out of the album’s cold and spacious chamber. A uneasy dream of tension and floating rhythms. Relief is ever undercut with the rising unease of another DVD. If you’ve ever wanted to experience a dozen or so movies scrambled into one coherent and beautiful work, Original Soundtrack is for you.

Taken from the Bandcamp listing, Davis comments on the album’s origins:

“In 2008 I was inspired by my partner’s unique cure for insomnia—falling asleep to endlessly looping Werner Herzog DVD menus. Original Soundtrack grew from there into a one hour piece for an orchestra of TVs and looping DVD menus from across genres and film history and was performed live in New York, Toronto, and Los Angeles. A graphic score was used to make it semi-repeatable. but syncing was random, or at best done with stop/start on remote controls.”

The album was remastered in 2020 by JD Davis and released on May 24th, 2020 on Bandcamp where you can listen or purchase it now.

For fans of: Meat Beat Manifesto, Bohren & der Club of Gore, Grouper

Like Original Soundtrack? Give these a listen: András Cséfalvay, Polyphonic Shooting Spree, Sleep Research Facility