This number from California’s Norse Horse seems way too sun-baked and lackadaisical for a title like “Meat Whale”, but who knows? Every time I think I have it figured out, Ryan Beal throws in a new monkey-wrench. What begins with a dubby bongo loop blossoms into a swirling pop fantasia when the guitar and vocals and bass kick in. Whether there’s one person singing here or a raft full of crooners is your guess as well as mine; either way, with all the twists and turns and subtle harmonic changes we hear on this one, the “lost at sea” metaphor feels pretty apt. The blistering guitar swell at the three minute mark surprises us like a port city rising up in the distance. Or is it the sudden recognition that we kind of enjoy this sensation of endless floating?

Norse Horse, “Meat Whale”

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Words: Emilie Friedlander
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BIG TROUBLES “MODERN INTIMACY” from OLDE ENGLISH SPELLING BEE on Vimeo.

Last time Big Troubles dropped a promotional video for Worry, their debut LP, I got into a slightly ugly debate with Elliott Sharp of the blog Biomusicophy when he accused the band of glamorizing the over-consumption of fast-food, and thereby endorsing the capitalist values of consumerism, excess, and animal murder. Elliott announced yesterday that he will be deleting his blogspot in two weeks time, relocating to wordpress, and reducing his web presence to the occasional republication of features and reviews published elsewhere. Now that Elliott has defected from the world of memes to concentrate his energies on traditional, long-form criticism — where he will surely be happier, and probably really excel — Big Troubles is free to promote reactionary bourgeois values to their heart’s content. If the hidden agenda of their “Bite Yr. Tongue” video was to make throwing up look cool, then this new video for “Modern Intimacy” must be trying to foster the false illusion that dropping money on leisure class trifles like sky-diving will bring us a heightened sense of intimacy and communion with our fellow man. The gorgeous texturedness of the production, and the vertigo-inducing guitar lines, and the catchiness of the songwriting can surely be no accident; the more beautiful its vehicle, the more effective propaganda becomes.
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I haven’t been able to get enough of Tracey Trance and his miniature Leprechaun universe since Chocolate Bobka posted about him on the 2010 cassette round-up that Altered Zones launched with. His Fountain tape on Night People may be sort of “old news” in this cut-throat information economy, but Tracey’s is some of the most fully incarnated lo-fi music I have ever heard. It’s not just that he does the cassette sound “well”; it’s that his songs would simply lose almost all of their glowing, childlike strangeness if they DIDN’T sound like they were being played back over a warped VHS tape. Even on MP3, “Fountain 1″ feels like tuning into a May Day celebration in a Playmobil village via stethoscope.

Tracey Trance, “Fountain 1″

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Following July’s ON PATROL LP, Los Angeles zoner SUN ARAW has extended the LA Cop theme into a second helping of triumphal warrior dub that wins the prize for best EP title of the year. In Cameron Stallones’ own words, OFF DUTY “grips you in heavy end-of-shift panic.” If ON PATROL feels like a confident, sharp-shooting swagger down the endless corridors of the mind, its sequel opens with the cold sweat that sets in before we turn the final corner — hyperventilating through two and a half minutes of white noise and guitar squiggles, unsure whether to proceed or turn back. Just when we reach a nadir disorientation and despair, SUN ARAW fades in one of his signature walking-pace bongo grooves, intones a few blurred words of encouragement, and we know what we have to do.

SUN ARAW, “LAST CHANTS”

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SUN ARAW’s OFF DUTY 12″ and OFF DUTY/BOAT TRIP CD are out October 12th on Woodsist. Cameron recently announced the dates for his European tour this fall. Scope them after the jump.
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