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Releases
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08 Melvins Pinkus Abortion Technician Ipecac A Place to Bury Strangers Pinned Dead Oceans
700 Bliss Spa 700 Halcyon Veil / Don Giovanni
REVIEWS
700 Bliss is the project of Philadelphia duo Camae Ayewa and Zubeyda Muzeyyen – known as Moor Mother and Discwoman-affiliate DJ Haram, respectively. Together they deal in intricate, breathless polyrhythms – both in terms of percussion (be that an 808 or delicately jagged brushes of finger cymbals) and Ayewa’s vocal delivery. Industrial quakes melt into sheens of dissonant Middle Eastern melodics, while Ayewa invokes snarling punkrap lyricism (“Don’t hate bitch/ You still in here trying to code switch”). The EP is short and concise, which in turn imbues every moment with more intent – the harrowing slave-ship imagery of opener Basic, the meditative hip-hop production on Ring the Alarm, Living’s feminine energy (“Relearn everything grandma taught”). The overarching question here is about race (“That anti-black’s programmed in your head/ now you wanna steal my culture”), but there are no easy answers, and there’s not a clearcut line to end on. Instead Spa 700 gives a space to ruminate and rage, to bathe in diasporic sonics, and come out feeling both enriched and enraged. It’s a journey that’s at once cathartic, but leaves you charged with the adrenaline to fight. !
Tara Joshi
Sometimes albums grow on you, and repeated listens reveal hidden rewards. Sometimes, a record just gets worse. Pinned is of the latter camp. The influence of The Jesus and Mary Chain is as present as ever for A Place To Bury Strangers, and lead singer/designer of guitar pedals Oliver Ackermann is never going to give up on fuzz. The New York band have gradually cleaned away some of the fog that so enshrouded their eponymous debut, but the trouble is, songwriting has never been their strong suit. At best here, clichéd mantras counterpoint pleasingly thunderous crashes and chirrups of treble (Execution), and the band make a decent homage to Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Maps (Was it Electric). At worst, hackneyed ideas of ‘rock n roll’ (Attitude) and vague, macho lyricism (Too Tough to Kill) rub shoulders with what feels like an endless succession of indie-disco beats that are exhausting by the album’s end. It’s not all bad: the band fare ok when swapping that annoying hi-hat rattle for machined beats as on Look Me in the Eye and I Know I’ve Done Bad Things, and Ackermann definitely can write good songs. Pinned is simply missing the sweetness that’s hidden away on previous albums. The Jesus and Mary Chain’s trick was to submerge gorgeous pop songs in their catatonic squall. By neglecting this, APTBS and Pinned are dour and hollow by comparison. !
Theo Kotz
By the time you get round to releasing your twenty-second studio album, you’re going to need to look for new ways to keep things fresh. Melvins know that, which is why, for the insensitively-titled Pinkus Abortion Technician, they drafted in eponymous Butthole Surfers bassist Jeff Pinkus to join the band’s own Steven McDonald in what they describe as “an experiment in the low end of the aural spectrum.” Accordingly, this is the most deeply grooveoriented Melvins album in quite some time, and that cuts both ways; the likes of the guttural Embrace the Rub seem gimmicky in their deployment of the dual bass players set up, while closer Graveyard puts them front and centre in a way that neglects the rest of the instrumentation and leaves the track feeling directionless. On the other side of the coin, though, Break Bread is all thunderous, riff-driven swagger, whilst the epic Don’t Forget to Breathe is among the finer examples of how well Melvins can do intense slowburners. Opener Stop Moving to Florida –which is a mashup of James Gang’s Stop and Butthole Surfers’ own Moving to Florida – is a fun enough diversion, but the real treat, and a surprise one at that, is an irresistibly heavy take on The Beatles’ I Want to Hold Your Hand, which the band play almost entirely straight to endearing effect. It seems that Melvins are going to be churning this stuff out forever. But as long as they’re having this much fun, that might be no bad thing. !
Joe Goggins
Speedy Ortiz Twerp Verse Carpark
Steven Julien Bloodline Apron Since shedding the FunkinEven moniker with the release of his concept LP Fallen in 2016, Steven Julien’s work has taken on a more introspective direction. Landing on his own imprint Apron Records – which has released soulful dance music from the likes of Seven Davis Jr. and Shanti Celeste – Bloodline sees the Londonbased producer and DJ dig deeper still. The mini-LP explores Julien’s personal and musical heritage, from being inspired by elder family members involved with dancing, MCing and soundsytem culture, to echoing the rhythms of African tribes and natives in the Caribbean. “Rhythm in the drum programming I produce ain’t coming from just me,” Julien recently told FACT, “it comes from a long line of ancestors.” Where Fallen more loosely shape-shifted into every expanse of his production style – from fluid jazz basslines to ragged breakbeat – Bloodline is driven by compact drum programming. In dedication to the Roland founder and engineer Ikutaro Kakehashi who passed away last year, the command of machines like the iconic 808 coursing through the veins of every track create a wild, almost three-dimensional array of pattern, texture and timbre. They drive the record with a propulsive energy – at times jaw-clenching and claustrophobic in maxed-out cuts like Apache, at others more scattered and fluttery in synth-house jam Queen of Ungilsan. There’s an inherent playfulness to this approach, which seeps into even the most hard-hitting beats. Yet Julien’s production flair shows not only in the nuances of raw analog drums but in the sounds crafted around this rhythmic framework: scribbling acid distortions, thick twanging basslines, glowing organ-like Roland Juno keys. Against the brazen kick drum in album closer IDK, the gushing synths and soft pads breathe a sigh of relief after the intensity of the album’s first half. His boldest release yet, Julien packs as much into six short tracks as he did with his full-length debut. Bloodline isn’t an easy record to pin down; the sounds of his upbringing rich in bass-heavy, rhythmic and soulful electronics aren’t obviously signposted, but they form the backbone of his own idiosyncratic and captivating sound. !
Josie Roberts
Building on the momentum of her Sad13 project – an optimistic, self-produced pop record which critiqued the industry’s male gaze – Sadie Dupuis breathes a kitschy pop sensibility to Twerp Verse, the third LP from her indie-grunge outfit Speedy Ortiz. The title, Dupuis said in a press release, refers to “when a musician guests on a track and says something totally outlandish – like a Lil Wayne verse – but it becomes the most crucial part.” This kind of accidentally-onpurpose charm is what drives Twerp Verse. But despite being decorated with perky synths, new guitarist Andy Molholt (of Philadelphia psych band Laser Background) supplies enough fuzz to rescue he record from the saccharine. Backslidin’ collapses into a rich, scratchy crescendo, while the sound of clipping gives Alone with Girls an anxious tint. Closer You Hate The Title boasts one of the brightest pop melodies on the LP, yet the lyrics make sharp observations about how people respond to those who speak out: “You hate the title, but you’re digging the song/ You like it in theory, but it’s rubbing you wrong,” Dupuis sings on top of the sparkling production. Combining heavy instrumentation with sweetsounding melody, Twerp Verse is the best demonstration so far of the Speedy Ortiz balancing act. An enjoyable record by a band working hard to have a good time. !
Duncan Harrison
