Bombino - Azel
This Tuareg axe-slinger and concomitant squad have their formula and they're stickin' to it: acoustic+electric high-string-centric bustle+sputter, rigorous handclaps, dynamic drumming, set-in-stone song-structures that synthesize jocund hippie-jam fiesta and mesmeric world-music grooves. High spirits and breezy virtuosity help annul any apprehensions about a language barrier, and either way his singflections and intermittent quavery party-chirps are quite the charismatic components in themselves. Stylistic redundancy does reveal itself rather rapidly, however -- enchanting and easeful as they may be, I can't help but find myself achin' for some expansion. 6.5/10
Bookworms - Xenophobe
For those who like their techno deep, rigid, and unnecessarily time-consuming; stiffen up, grab a book, and hop on in. It's stellar, sure, modestly motley, highly hypnotic, some of the grooves convey emotion here and there, it references partly-privy skate slang -- but the passages of extra-monotony paired with kinda-all of these track lengths push entrancing to encroaching, intriguing to 'so what else is going on?'. Standout "You Say So" is a cute+pestersome peculiarity, which at just under 6 minutes is nearly the shortest of 'em all and feels like a flittin' ditty squished between 10-and-18-minute monsters. The shortest being the title-track finale, which just resigns to a blah-blah ambient blob. Makes sense for a Xenophobe I s'pose. Kinda. 5.5/10
Dorisburg - Irrbloss
********HIGHEST RECS*******
The bassy base-beats are as deep+stark as they can get whilst remaining understated yet routinely have a buoyancy to 'em, the sounds-besides are winningly vibrant+varied for understated too -- finespun percussive add-ons, some vintage-synth ooze, scratches/ticks/bloops/blips, semblance of melody here, epic-n-exotic foggy flute work there. Exceptionally treads the line between entrancing and engaging; and for restrained rigid-robot techno it goes alotta places, doesn't get too tautologous, and can swap out wondrous for wacky no probz. Considering the paucity of personality and mucho machinery, pretty generous. 8/10
Glitterbust - Glitterbust
Amps hazily hum, amps squeal a bit, guitars lackadaisically strummed, guitars sporadically poked -- the dearth of cohesion during these dubious meander-jams is one thing, but truly dumbfounding is the deficiency of just about any form of fruition. Might make for a dece atmospheric smog to wallow in if it wasn't so bunglin' and draggin', and oh right those infrequent vocals: refer to what the amps do again and toss in some vacantly-stated poetry. ~*~meh~*~
Tim Hecker - Love Streams
While the floaty flow and sinister-shroud/cozy-heaven conjugality are fairly fetching, so much of it is a flustered clutter of non-action and nonsense. Which is sorta-kinda worth wading in for when the sublime church-choir vox loom or the glitches rip on through to the other side. An appealing atmosphere as far as minced-up synth-somethings and meandering go, but some cohesion is cool too tho. 5.5/10
Terrace Martin - Velvet Portraits
Prominent Pimped-Butterfly producer puts together a hybrid hodgepodge of r&b-jazz-soul-funk: roughly in that order when it comes to genre-tilt with a modicum of hip-hop/electro-dream extract, boasts a laundry list of erudite guest features, and smoothly interlaces instrumentals with the non-. And considering its 14-track tally/nearly 70 minutes/inordinate collaborating, caliber and consistency really run rampant -- many lay it down so smooth-n-mellow as to epitomize 'chill' or driving into a Cali sunset, some superbly scratch that itch to get up and get down, others revel in nowhere-to-go jam-outs and fat-n-farty bass blurts. But, er, that nearly 70 minutes tho, that much-appreciated stylistic traditionalism at times translating to starched and slack. See the ender-revision of Kendrick's "Mortal Man" for an extended example of artfully fusing past+present, see nondescript-yet-empathetic lyrics for themes passable in the past but prosaic in the present: coming together now, being together forever, waiting for someone to come back, funking you up, etc. 6/10
Kevin Morby - Singing Saw
Morby's well-promulgated Dylanflection doesn't carry over word-wise, prompting his sorta-sagely demeanor to come off rickety, nebulous; and perhaps the least felicitous for sorta-sageness, pedestrian. Not so much to become bothersome, but rather kinda conducive to further savoring the substantial deployment of a femme-vox triad and the oft-lovely instrumental implementation. Slow-n-sparse strings-toting echo-folk suits him fine, but the doses of behavioral breakouts are vital: psych+dub fuzz and piano-trance amid mountaineering and singing saws cutting down trees, actual singing saws weepin' and wailin', a sexy sax slink-in during "Destroyer", the oh-so-essential dirty rosy medial romp of "Dorothy". Would be good to see his singing become as seductive as all the saws-n-stuff tho. 7/10
Nisennenmondai - #N/A
///BRAV-FUCKING-O\\\
I adore+applaud their scarily-strict minimalist chug-offs of ticks-n-bumps-n-squeaks -- enough to shrug off the exhaustion they inflict and restrictions they require, even enough to kinda-tolerate the ceaseless+colorless grime-churn gyrating through the entirety of a 16-minute slow-build beast also known as "#2". With post-production peppering in light-fare muffled-mystery noise and panning/echo-psych shenanigans, this 3-piece "rock" outfit comes on more like a sole neurotic techno techie with a drum-kit -- and as much as caution and rigor and endurance are their bread and knife and butter, they oft-manage to project a sense of perkiness; the unshakable tension-upkeep that never-ever lets loose helping stamp out sterility while keeping the listener perpetually on edge to boot. Also keen at keeping the listener's brain feeling something akin to an overworked assembly belt. 7/10
Vektor - Terminal Redux
*******HIGHEST RECS*******
Just for disclosure, yeah I skipped out on that whole story-concept thing: chiefly cuz sci-fi sagas, especially in album form, aren't really my bag/who has the time?; but particularly because the poundage and propulsion of this shrill-hawk snarlin' light-speed rip-roarin' technical precision-fest is sustenance enough to make a tale all-too-ignorable if you so choose. Not too long after they give in to a track-4 interlude is approximately when things begin to blur a bit, but even then it's quite the on-the-ball blur -- the birr alone is a furious force to be reckoned with, the cohesion still ceaseless, the catchiness still convincing, their prog never usurping their thrash. A track-8 pedestal-o-granules brings 'em back to top form and paves the way for some unforeseen cleans and the epic/even soulful 13-minute ender they deserve. And I get restricting the fantastic femme-vox to the bookended charging+recharging of voids, but ooo it would've been nice to see that wealth get spread. Some contrast for the fury, ya know? 8/10
Youth Code - Commitment to Complications
Though it'd be nice to see the vox fixate on variance as half-much as they do malignity, the agonized she+he venom-spitting sprinkled with samplings of antisocial sentiments are frequently vehement and dare I say deliciously diabolical. For industria-beats so mechanical+aggressive+minatory they'd sound at home on the killing floor of a futuristic terrorist compound, suitable supplements indeed. Not to say it's absolute thickheaded carnage -- floating-ghost-synths help channel celestiality, plenty of intricacies and subtleties are there for the pickin', they're not opposed to churnin' out some catchy+melodic, and occasional plunges into slowed-down sparsity grant the listener some breathing room while our vocalists get their decrepit-elder on. Pretty positive that a gagged woman is getting whipped at one point, though. 7/10
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