STACK #155 Sep 2017

MUSIC REVIEWS

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Nosaj Thing Parallels Many years ago (in the '00s) the peace of Los Angeles' music community was shocked by the explosion of something scientists would later call the Beat Scene. Labels like Brainfeeder and Alpha Pup (and producers like Flying Lotus, TOKiMONSTA and Gaslamp Killer) rocked the faultlines between hip hop and electronic music. A young DJ and producer with a certain calm clarity to his work emerged, named Nosaj Thing. His debut Drift was drawn with stark synth lines and coloured with otherworldly sounds; if it was beamed from outer space, second album Home was a deeper sonar signal, dense with atmosphere. This new collection, arguably his most accomplished, arrives not from above, below, or within, but from a new dimension yet to be properly described. Parallels merges the past and the present with a clear intent for the future of the ever-evolving LA Beat Scene. (Inertia) SimonWinkler

Ariel Pink Dedicated To Bobby Jameson That the story of Bobby Jameson appeals to Ariel Pink is no surprise. The near-myth of a popstar and savant songwriter who rejects the mainstream for the radical underground is the kind of thing Pink’s music, with its photonegative skew on six decades of pop, implies. Dedicated To Bobby Jameson reiterates just what the mainstream is missing. As usual, Pink hits hardest when he’s most vulnerable ( Another Weekend , Kitchen Witch ), but even when less lyrically scrutable on the Bugles-nodding Time To Live , Pink delivers a maddening kaleidoscope of his existential angst. Dedicated to Bobby Jameson sits comfortably next to his previous three records as intricate modern classics. (Mistletone) Jake Cleland

Sløtface Try Not To Freak Out Planning on writing an early 2000’s rom-com? Sløtface have the soundtrack covered, although the Norwegian outfit’s blustering debut doesn’t bother itself with the self-deprecation or deep personal heartbreak that often fill other releases in the genre. Instead, the four-piece rip through 35 minutes of feisty punk like a liberating tornado, with frontwoman Haley Shea using her piercing enthusiasm to smash society's patriarchal structures. On Magazine Shea attacks the unrealistic body images promoted in fashion: “Thoughts that aren’t mine keep running through my head…Thunder thighs keeps reaching for the measuring tape." On Pitted she gives all the socially awkward couch-dwellers a pep talk, and the bass riff-heavy Nancy Drew creates an idol that will save the band from the music industry’s Mens' Club. Norway has a word for an album like this: fantastik . (Caroline)Tim Lambert

Moses Sumney Aromanticism “ Aromanticism is a concept album about lovelessness as a sonic dreamscape.” This one of the most romantic album statements I’ve ever read. And yet listening to the album you soon realise that it’s a prosaic understatement, for here is an album of heartbreaking beauty and grand desolation. Moses Sumney taught himself to play guitar while studying creative writing at UCLA, and has spent years refining his unique approach to folk, soul and jazz- inflected compositions, touring extensively and collaborating with artists including James Blake and The Cinematic Orchestra. On Aromanticism , each song soars high above, or shakes to the core. If this is an age where idealism struggles with pragmatism and mystery is left in favour of measurable outcomes, Aromanticism is the record that reminds us this wasn’t always so,

and needn’t always be. (Inertia) SimonWinkler

This month our artist-in-residence Cookie took her sketchbook up close to surf pop duo Hockey Dad at The Zoo, and got a face full of MC Ride of experimental Californian hip hop group Death Grips at Max Watt's (both in Brissie). Admire Cookie's other live music illustrations on her instagram, @sketchygigs . COOKIE ' S SKETCHY GIGS

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SEPTEMBER 2017

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