10.02.2022

Good evening,

This is Beach Sloth. Below are this week’s albums:

Kuedo – Infinite Window

               Kuedo’s Infinite Window really wowed me. I had never heard of him before despite the many different labels he’s been on, like Planet Mu and this one’s current resting place on Brainfeeder records. To be quite frank, it was right out of left field. For a genre where the idea is to put out an album every two years, he’s put out three albums in about eleven years. Perhaps I will check out some of his earlier stuff but this worked beautifully.

               Brainfeeder tends to put out pretty good stuff, but I’ll admit, this glossy sound really is next level. A whole slew of different influences emerge – the tried-and-true videogame soundtrack stuff that is the label’s sweet spot, but then there are bits of Boards of Canada’s aching nostalgia. Jamie goes full-on with the narrative within the sound itself. I like the cascading synth chords that introduce the album, going for an Oneohtrix Point Never vibe. He brings a lot into the mix, and the pieces seemingly grow off each other.

               Ambient, pure beat bombast, and soundtrack work comes together. I like the narrative sensibility he brings to the table too for there is a nice bit of soul within the textures. For a genre like electronic music, it is doubly refreshing to hear the soulfulness done well and not too overly twee/coy. Production-wise it definitely lives up to the obsessive detail that Flying Lotus pretty much demands of all of his label’s artists, which also works to Kuedo’s advantage for there is a ton of little flourishes.

               Overall, I enjoy the futuristic approach and was pleasantly surprised by this. Brainfeeder’s good normally but this is one of the best things I’ve heard from them in some time.

Eric Copeland and Josh Diamond – Riders On The Storm

               Eric Copeland and Josh Diamond prove to be effective sparing partners on Riders On The Storm. I rather enjoy Eric’s main gig with Black Dice but his solo work typically leaves me feeling a bit cold. Maybe it is the lazy stoner vibe his sounds give off, I’m unsure. Yet whenever he has other people around him they tend to reign in some of his repetitive tendencies. Riders On The Storm is a case in point. Josh Diamond’s knowledge and occupation of similar musical territory as Eric (Josh is in Gang Gang Dance) means that he can add a bit of flair into the proceedings.

               For me the album peaks early with TA. On here they both bring a lot to the table. The warped-up vocalizations bring to mind some of latter-day Black Dice, as there is a giddiness to it. A verifiable banger of a track, it cycles quite nicely. Almost possessing a bridge (almost, but not quite) the whole thing has a sunny disposition to it. While it does set the bar relatively high and while no other track is as infinitely catchy, the rest of the album does not disappoint either. The sound appears drenched in oh so much sunshine with the vivid guitar riffs drawing from Black Dice’s afrobeat interests (and Gang Gang Dance’s as well).

               Honestly, this might be one of the nicest things I’ve heard from a non Black Dice Eric Copeland collaboration. Fun, goofy, and strangely catchy it is by no means necessary listening but it is a fun trip to go on.

Exit Mouse – Spare Hearts                         

               With Spare Hearts Exit Mouse proves that plagiarism is not limited to writing. The theft on here is absolutely mind-blowing. Any good moment on here is stolen from bands that did it literally decades ago, before probably any of the members were even born. Instrumentally they lack any form of discernible chops, essentially cutting and pasting what other bands did before and did better. Some of these moments are so ridiculous I actually had to look up the original, to confirm that I was not simply hearing things. To my utmost sadness, I was not hearing things.

               Let’s go out of order with this one. On MIRROR they basically pilfer the guitar chords from the Pixies Where Is My Mind? Unlike the Pixies, they have a whole lot less nuance and detail to the riffs. Quite vanilla they basically take the heart out of the original and make it sound very bank commercial-esque. I am not fond of the probably countless number of bands that have done the whole impersonating the Pixies at their heyday, but this is offensively bad.

               Worse than that, and skin-crawlingly bad, is the song Spare Hearts. The instrumentation on here definitely leans heavily into the twee. Explosions in the Sky want their intro back, but the rest of the sound is okay at least. Here I am absolutely, 100% creeped out by the lyrics. Buck Riley writes pure nightmare fuel for the verses. Usually I am fine with lyrics, either indifferent or actually finding them pretty good. Everything about Buck Riley’s lyricism is profoundly disturbing. Considering at this point I have listened to literally thousands of bands over the course of the past decade and a half, this is perhaps the most uncomfortable I have been listening to lyrics, and that includes a slew of noise rock bands, power electronics, transgressive artists, and so forth. Whereas in all those other genres they realize they are pushing boundaries, asking the listener to think about what society means and how it views people, here there appears to be the normalization of the profane.

               The worst of the lines reads:

               Our bad is good for me.

               Beyond the inherent selfishness of it, it has to be taken in within the greater context of the song itself. A number of illusions to dogs make it particularly unsettling. Nor do I think that I am being overly harsh and critical on the track, for it takes up over 50% of the entire duration of the already fairly short EP. This is unsettling, especially for someone who has adopted animals from shelters before. I sincerely hope that Buck Riley does not have any pets and I hope I am maybe reading a bit too deep into this. Either way, the lyrics profoundly disturb me, as I do not enjoy the idea of love being framed between a dog and their owner in such an uncomfortable, creepy, and illegal way.

               Outside of the bad lyricism and outright theft of multiple riffs/rhythms/basslines/etc. it all has a hollowness to it. Even in its best moments, the band sounds like they are going through the motions of being a generic indie rock band rather than a band that has any original ideas to contribute to the genre. This band is out of Memphis which surprises me as Memphis has a fairly rich history of creating some amazing groups, indie rock and otherwise (I’m specifically talking about the Memphis rap scene of the 90s). Please support all those other Memphis bands, who are doing things that are startingly original, don’t support this CVS Drugstore fluff muzak with awful, borderline offensive, lyricism. You can do so much better than this.