Philip Selway - Running Blind EP

1 Running Blind
2 All In All
3 Every Spit And Cough
4 What Goes Around

Radiohead fans know that drummer Philip Selway is not the first member of the band to go solo. But he does seem to be the first member of the band to write and record songs that sound so very little like his day job. When singer Thom Yorke and multi-instrumentalist Jonny Greenwood each made recent solo projects, their respective sounds did not catch anyone off guard. Yorke’s album, The Eraser, recorded with producer Nigel Godrich, did not fall far from the Radiohead tree at all. There were differences, yes, but they were outnumbered by the similarities. Greenwood’s soundtrack work and avant-garde classical pieces were pretty out there, but he was also responsible for many of the alien sounds on OK Computer and Kid A.

Selway’s slow, hushed British folk, on the other hand, didn’t sound like it came from neither a Radiohead member nor a drummer. This makes it sound like he was courting disaster, but Selway’s debut album Familial was just good enough to reward the curious while leaving room for him to grow as a singer and a songwriter. Four reheated outtakes from the album now comprise Running Blind EP. As his label puts it, “he kept back a handful that he felt worked best as a separate piece of work.” But realistically speaking, they just sound like they weren’t good enough.

One thing that works against the EP is how homogenized it is. Despite the fact that Selway is the drummer for Radiohead, his songs are not rhythmically driven. Sticking to nylon or steel string guitar, his songs revolve around his vocal melodies. Selway has a certain way of spinning melody that can be frustratingly subtle. Not necessarily a bad thing, but it was as if no one working on this recording noticed that all four songs had the same tempo and dynamics. They are all medium-slow and quiet. One of the things that made Familial better than this EP is that it had a little more variety. And not variety in the sense of loud and fast pitted against ballads, but variety in the details. It was the little things that counted. The brightening of a high-end tone, the addition of one small instrument to the mix, and the small shifts in pace helped differentiate the songs. All four songs on Running Blind EP are entirely too like-minded, exposing more weaknesses than necessary.

I also believe that Selway is a better singer than he leads on. He can carry a tune just fine and was good enough to sing on the same CD with Neil Finn and Jeff Tweedy, so that’s certainly not the problem. It’s just that his harsh afraid-of-waking-the-baby whisper begs for a change-up. Standing back and looking at his lyrics, this approach may not be altogether unwise. He seems preoccupied with troubled people. Shortly after the release of Radiohead’s Hail to the Thief, I read an article about Selway’s volunteer work with psychiatric hot lines. It all started by trying to get a girl’s attention, but he found that sacrificing his time to talk people down from their ledges gave him special meaning. “I’ve been going ‘round in circles / trying to figure you out”, goes the opening line on “What Goes Around”. The title track admits to feelings of fear while “All In All” acknowledges how good fortune often comes in smaller packages than we"d like. If anything sounds like a breakdown, it’s the moderately pounding “Spit and Cough”: “I believe you, now please go away”.

Phil Selway’s talents as a singer and songwriter warrant attention. Running Blind EP, however, does not. As the drummer moves on to bigger things, this 15 minute collection will hardly be a footnote in his history...www.popmatters.com

Young Legionnaire - Crisis Works

01. Twin Victory
02. Numbers
03. Chapter, Verse
04. Even the Birds
05. Black Lions
06. A Hole In the World
07. These Arms
08. Blood Dance
09. Nova Scotia
10. Mortgage Rock
11. Young Salute
12. Futures Finished

To some, Young Legionnaire is a super-group in the sense that members have previously played in other, well-received bands (and continue to). To others, they’re a super group exclusively on their own merits. To these ears: a bit of both. There’s no doubt the trio make an impressive, melodically savvy racket – think Foo Fighters with greater crunch, or a clean-shaven Biffy; post-hardcore without the more cacophonous catharsis. But there’s the nagging feeling that the end result of their efforts doesn’t completely add up to more than the sum of its impressive parts. Crisis Works is accomplished, polished in all the right ways (it sounds good without the grit at the heart of the songs becoming obscured), but perhaps lacks the soul that a musician’s primary project might be instilled with.

Frontman Paul Mullen puts in a committed performance, the ex-yourcodenameis:milo man, currently in The Automatic, able to switch from understated reflection to soaring might come the choruses. His versatility lends Crisis Works essential variety – over its 12 tracks, there’s a good spread of influences coming to the fore, and the interplay between the melodic and rhythmic elements is superbly studied. The band is completed by Bloc Party’s Gordon Moakes on bass and drummer Dean Pearson; originally, Brontide/La Roux sticksman William Bowerman sat at the kit, but demands on his time meant he handed ownership of the stool over to Pearson. At times they recall the tightly-wound punk of stateside outfits like Hot Snakes and Wichita labelmates The Bronx – propulsive, punchy, yet relatively minimalist of instrumentation. At others, they dip into emo waters: not Fall Out Boy style, but more turn-of-the-millennium Jade Tree/Deep Elm in approach. It’s a commendable mix, and one that instantly clicks with listeners of a certain age (hello, this listener).

The only problem is that such a sound hasn’t aged brilliantly, which while not an issue for fans of the Small Brown Bikes and Promise Rings of this world, does rather leave Young Legionnaire at odds with current rock fashions. But such is the transitory nature of this side-project endeavour that it shouldn’t matter – more than anything else, Crisis Works comes over as a labour of love. No, it doesn’t have that extra something, a spark to truly make it essential. But these players have carefully assembled a collection that ticks their own boxes, and there’s much to be said for personal gratification over trend-chasing commercial mindsets. A very respectable debut, all told, and one that deserves an eventual sequel...www.bbc.co.uk

Mister Heavenly - Out of Love

1. Bronx Sniper
2. I Am a Hologram
3. Charlyne
4. Mister Heavenly
5. Harm You
6. Reggae Pie
7. Pineapple Girl
8. Diddy Eyes
9. Hold My Hand
10. Doom Wop
11. Your Girl
12. Wise Men

Eight years ago, the smart money would've bet against Nick Thorburn becoming one of the more industrious alumni to emerge from the early-2000s Canadian indie-rock uprising-- his endearingly unstable former band, the Unicorns, could barely make it through a set without experiencing some sort of breakdown (be it technical or psychological). But while he has since emerged as the autonomous creative force behind the prog-pop ensemble Islands (tellingly, it was his face alone that graced the cover of 2009's Vapours) and recently released a low key solo album under the name Nick Diamonds (I Am an Attic), Thorburn has not forgotten what made the Unicorns so special: the alternately cheeky and tense dynamic between himself and ex-bandmate Alden Penner. As such, Thorburn has never shied away from the opportunity to match wits with a creative foil, teaming up with Jim Guthrie for the countrified Human Highway detour and, now, squaring off against Ryan Kattner-- aka Honus Honus of Philly carnival barkers Man Man-- in Mister Heavenly.

Thorburn, of course, is no stranger to high-concept side projects (namely, his flirtations with hip-hop in Th' Corn Gangg and Reefer) and, on paper, Mister Heavenly initially reads like a similarly orchestrated lark. The band-- rounded out by Modest Mouse drummer Joe Plummer-- was reportedly devised around a self-explanatory sub-genre they dubbed "doom wop." The stunt-casting of actor Michael Cera as the band's bassist during their spring 2011 tour reinforced the assumption that Mister Heavenly would be a casual, low-stakes endeavor with which Thorburn and Kattner could amuse themselves before returning to their main gigs. But Mister Heavenly's Sub Pop debut proves to be something far more lasting and rewarding: Rather than serve as an outlet for their well-documented eccentric streaks, Thorburn and Kattner's good-cop/bad-cop dynamic yields some of the most tightly focused, immediately engaging songs either principal has produced.

Ironically, it's Plummer's band that seems to wield the most influence on the outset, with Thorburn's ominously quiet verses on the opening "Bronx Sniper" yielding to an immodest, un-mousey grunge crunch and an especially Isaac Brock-ian howl from Kattner. But, as bracing an introduction as it is, the song's angst-rock ballast does not provide the best showcase of Mister Heavenly's charms. These are more readily revealed when the band settle down and put their modernist spin on early, pre-Beatles rock'n'roll balladry and 1960s tropical pop. Parallel-universe golden-oldies like "I Am a Hologram", "Diddy Eyes", and "Hold My Hand" may not fully live up to the transgressive promise of the "doom wop" descriptor but, like fellow 1950s-rock enthusiasts Black Lips and King Khan in their gentler moments, Mister Heavenly approach their AM-radio inspirations with just the right balance of devotion and deviance. (To wit, on the winsome title-track-cum-band-mission-statement "Mister Heavenly", Thorburn is not so much claiming to be the man of your dreams as resigning himself to the impossibility of living up to the matinee-idol ideal.)

Out of Love's playful spirit sometimes crosses the line into unnecessary indulgence-- the rocksteady rhythm of "Reggae Pie" sounds like it'd be fun to groove on in the practice space, but probably didn't need to be featured as the album's longest track (complete with false ending), while the 98-second song that actually bears the title "Doom Wop" doesn't even attempt to honor either half of the equation. (Oddly, its sludgy slop-rock sounds uncannily like a tossed-off Ty Segall demo.) However, at no point does it feel like the players are simply using Mister Heavenly as a dumping ground for leftover song scraps they couldn't work into their primary projects: Every song here comes off like a true, collaborative union of the singers' singular personalities, with Thorburn's calm, childlike voice and Kattner's wizened old-soul rasp trading verses and choruses in surprisingly complementary fashion. The effect is mutually corrupting-- by the time we reach the wonderfully warped pen-pal exchange "Pineapple Girl", Thorburn sounds like the creepy one while Kattner acts as the stabilizing force. Really, no one would ever accuse Islands or Man Man of lacking character and presence, but once Thorburn and Kattner return to their bands after this dalliance, you'll be excused for thinking they'll sound a little bit incomplete without one another...www.pitchfork.com

Psychic Babble – My Brother’s Ears/My Sister’s Eyes

01. Five Fold Kiss (Don’t Sleep)
02. Nothing Familiar
03. Samantha
04. Radio Songs
05. You Said It
06. Crocodile Tears
07. Boulevard
08. Let Me Change
09. Follow Your Bliss
10. Harper

Far from the EBM act you might imagine based on the name alone, Psychic Babble is the solo alter ego of Circa Survive guitarist Colin Frangicetto, who serves up 10 tracks of lush indie-electronica. Self-produced and released on his own label, it’s a consistently dreamy affair in the likes of opener ‘Five Fold Kiss (Don’t Sleep)’ and ‘Samantha’, but avoids becoming too languid through the strength and stylistic diversity of tunes like ‘Radio Songs’ and ‘Follow Your Bliss’. The concept of background ‘chillout music’ rightly leaves many people cold; Psychic Babble’s debut is proof that being chilled does not equate to being dull...www.rocksound.tv

Fruit Bats - Tripper

1. Tony the Tripper
2. So Long
3. Tangie and Ray
4. Shivering Fawn
5. You're Too Weird
6. Heart Like an Orange
7. Dolly
8. The Banishment Song
9. The Fen
10. Wild Honey
11. Picture of a Bird

For a minute there, Fruit Bats rocked. On 2009's The Ruminant Band, the quartet, lead by seasoned indie sideman Eric D. Johnson (Califone, Vetiver, the Shins), eked up the tempo-- sidelining folksier impulses in favor of gently driving guitar pop that channeled Rumors-era Fleetwood Mac. Two years later, they're back to being mellow.

With Tripper, the group's fifth album, Johnson dials Fruit Bats' pulse back down, favoring spacious and spacey songwriting that sets the lyrics front and center. It's a record full of stories, with Johnson centering most of the tunes around simple narratives and offbeat characters. On the record's opening track, "Tony the Tripper", Johnson dreams up a Kerouac-style road trip with a companion who comes across as one part railroad lifer and one part Burning Man refugee. There are troubles along the way-- schizoid episodes and punker crash pads-- but by the chorus, Johnson and his imagined companion usually have things sorted out: "We was all under the date palm tree/ They left the rolling of one up to me/ Knowing the world might end tomorrow anyway."

The only problem is that Johnson's tales aren't all that hooky. At least, not enough to buoy Tripper's soft and moody music. Conflict, resolution, and character development often slip by unnoticed, eased in their passage by the woozy synths and atmospherics that function as the album's rough-spot-smoothing sonic hand lotion. On the reverb-soaked "Wild Honey", Johnson's lyrics are placed prominently in the mix-- "Each empire who inherits the sea, rises and retreats into foam/ In the ash there stirs a seed, empty between what's unseen and unknown"-- but get lost in the woozy ambience. The imagery is rich but abstract, and there's not enough muscle in Johnson's plinking guitar to prop it up.

Johnson fares better when he takes a more casual tone, as on "Tangie and Ray", which follows a pair of hippies as they flee society for nature and, by the sound of it, certain doom. "Now they're one with the dirt, and the mouldering bones and litter leaves," he yelps. It's one of Tripper's more upbeat tunes, benefiting from the full band accompaniment and a driving drum beat. But while the rhythm section makes a difference, it helps that Johnson is keeping a straightforward narrative. He's better with rogues and riffs than heady prose...www.pitchfork.com

Tim Kasher - Bigamy: More Songs From The Monogamy Sessions

01 No Harmony
02 Opening Night
03 A Bluer Sea
04 Lilybird And The Trust Fund Kid
05 Rabbit, Run
06 The Jessica
07 Trees Keep Growing

Every album singer/songwriter/rocker Tim Kasher releases has a completely different feel than the last. Even within each of his projects (hard-rocking Cursive and heartbreakingly somber The Good Life), the music varies from album to album. The one thing that has stayed consistent are his poetic and, at times, brutally honest lyrics. Though as the years have pushed on, Kasher has moved a little further away from frankness. That is until last year’s solo effort, The Game of Monogamy. Monogamy is Kasher at his most honest and truthful, and the songs on his latest EP, Bigamy: More Songs from the Monogamy Sessions, are a harsh continuation of that mind-set.

Album opener “No Harmony” is a building, rolling song musically and a stark naked unveiling lyrically. Throughout the album, Kasher is pretty self-effacing but never more so than on this song. After singing about possibly going down to the local bar to flirt with some pretty, young girls, Kasher shamelessly admits that they are out of his league—calling himself “Mr. Peter Pan” and saying that those girls “live in Never Never Land” with his sardonic refrain, “Uh huh.” He follows that with “I’m better off with a girl my age/A spinster or a divorcee, uh huh/Well here I am, a divorcee too, with a pot belly and a jagged tooth, uh huh.” If you love watching an artist completely bare themselves, you have found the mother lode.

The rest of the album isn’t quite as uncomfortably honest as the first track. Kasher keeps things at arm’s length most of the time on tracks like the bouncy “A Bluer Sea” and the slower “Lilybird and the Trust Fund Kid”, but he does continuously touch on the topics of broken relationships and life as a thirtysomething. It’s refreshing to watch an artist not just stick to his usual ideas, both musically and lyrically, and allow himself to grow up. It’s awkward to watch a singer, as he gets older, still singing about life as a young buck against the world. Kasher acknowledges the new challenges of his age and sings about them with the same candor as he did when he was younger.

Bigamy is being released as a tour and internet-only EP, and it’s definitely one to check out. The seven songs (six originals and a cover of fellow Saddle Creeker Azure Ray’s “Trees Keep Growing”) are growers that might take a few listens to wrap around, but the payoff is definitely worth it...www.consequenceofsound.net

Dreadnought - Caroline EP

01. Meteorite
02. Bathed In Light
03. Ride The Beast
04. Caroline

Dreadnought is the collaborative project between Untold (Hemlock / Hessle Audio) and Samuel Chase (Samuel and the Dragon). This is the duo's debut release, an individually numbered vinyl-only EP pressed in a limited run - there will be no repress...www.boomkat.com

Guttershake - Fibreoptickz EP

1. Fibroptickz
2. Let it Move
3. Tec Toy

J:Kenzo unveils his new 130bpm alias with three hard-edged rollers on Roska's home brewed imprint. 'Fibreoptickz' sets the swagger with clipped 808s and wormy synths, before 'Let It Move' comes nastier and more gritty, jamming on evil bassline squelch and Breaks-y beats. Finally 'Tec Toy' works with a bleepier halfsteppin' agenda...www.boomkat.com

Jayson Brothers - The Game EP

01.The Game
02.Keep On Dancin'

First release by Danilo Plessow of Motor City Drum Ensemble on Drumpoet under his Jayson Brothers pseudonym. The Game features the essence of raw unpolished house music that results in max floor euphoria.

Moody - Ol Dirty Vinyl

A1 Ol' Dirty Vinyl (U Used To Know)
A2 We Don't Care
A3 No Feedback
B1 It's 2 Late 4 U And Me
B2 The Hacker

Detroit's wiliest house master presents a collection of wide ranging grooves recorded between late 90s and 2009. We get to witness the breadth and depth of KDJ's oeuvre over five tracks, ranging from the crackly disco of 'Ol' Dirty Vinyl' through to outré synth experiments and one deadly club jam in 'It's 2 Late 4 U And Me'. That title track is a cheeky killer, apparently recorded in just 3 hours in Vienna using worn-out vinyl loops to arrange a gritty soul stunner, while 'We Don't Care' features a faux jazz workout in typically greezy style. He links with long term collaborator Mick Collins on a crazy garage rockin' number 'No Feedback', and leaves the DJs salivating over that extended club jam on the flip. These limited copies come housed in gorgeous textured outer sleeve and colour printed inners = an indispensable purchase for the KDJ fiends! Killer...www.boomkat.com

Pearson Sound- Down With You / Higher

A. Down With You
B. Higher


Mantaaap..

Alex O. Smith - Ultra Fine

A1. Ultra Fine One
A2. Ultra Fine Two
B1. Mid 90's

Alexander Omar Smith comes hard with three tracks of rugged acid for FXHE. These are essentially three variations on a tracky and hypnotic vibe ellicited from what sounds like a 606, 303 and some of that cryptic lo-fi magic he keeps in the top drawer. It's not really Chicago acid either, these tracks sound more like 'Sheet One' era Plastikman than owt from DJ Pierre and co, eschewing warm and groovy feelings for a tough driving Detroit style salted with Omar's processing methods for that dry rasping snap. Heavy and robust tackle from the master...www.boomkat.com

Shetland - Excess

01 Nothing Succeeds Like Excesss
02 Moderation Is Fatal
03 Nothing Succeeds Like Excesss (Beat Pharmacy's Restrained Excess)
04 Moderation Is Fatal (Brendon Moeller's Moderately Excessive Dub)

Exploring the quicksand areas around minimal house and techno, Ramadanman and Brendon Moeller meet minds on the 'Excess' EP for Apnea. Most noticably it's would seem that Ramadanman has altered his style the most for this project, dipping the bpms down into mid-paced house and techno grooves with some subbass embellishment and delicately fluttering dub vibes. 'Nothing Succeeds Like Excess' is the mantra for the lush opener, rolling with sweetened Detroit harmonics and spherical bass rubs while the slightly drier pitch of 'Moderation Is Fatal' revolves about offset snares and deep house arrangements. Brendon Moeller follows these with two typically opulent motions, dispersing layers of dub pressure with is deft touch...www.boomkat.com

Ramona Falls - Intuit

01. Melectric
02. I Say Fever
03. Clover
04. Russia
05. Going Once, Going Twice
06. Salt Sack
07. Boy Ant
08. Always Right
09. The Darkest Day
10. Bellyfulla
11. Diamond Shovel

Ramona Falls is the new music project by Brent Knopf. Brent, a Portland Oregon native, is also one-third of the band Menomena. Ramona Falls’ debut album will be called “intuit” and is slated for an August 18 2009 release on Barsuk Records. Musical Influences include : The Homosexuals, Sly and the Family Stone, Talking Heads, PJ Harvey, Magnetic Fields, Gorecki, AC/DC, and Erik Satie.

Discovery - LP

01. Orange Shirt
02. Osaka Loop Line
03. Can You Discover?
04. I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend (ft. Angel Deradoorian)
05. So Insane
06. Swing Tree
07. Carby (ft. Ezra Koenig)
08. I Want You Back
09. It's Not My Fault (It's My Fault)
10. Slang Tang

Side projects are often insipid and indulgent wrecks-- random noise/techno/weird experiments tossed off by people who should know better. Thankfully, Discovery-- featuring Vampire Weekend keyboardist/producer Rostam Batmanglij and Ra Ra Riot singer Wes Miles-- is not one of those side projects. Started as a fun, electro-pop hobby four years ago, the duo are finally ready to release their debut album, simply called LP, on July 7 via XL.

Hennon - Ear To Mouth EP

1. Ear To Mouth
2. Heart To Ear
3. Tirem

Very special project from Stephan Bodzin & Andres Henneberg. Crazy escalation of a distinctive vocal sampler...

Steve Hauschildt - Resplendent

A1 When Day Breaks
A2 Surveillance Chapel
A3 Approach-Avoidance
B1 Kitchen Sync
B2 Antidotes
B3 Gilded Star Map
B4 Drink From The Fountain

One of the new lights in synthesizer music which i'm very excited about. giving romance / beauty a place in music again, Steve brings a short contemplation of prose poems. a collection of beautiful incantations and scetches that could be directly channeled from a digitalised, fully updated mind of the Sona Gaia emporium of pretty meditations.

Atlas Sound – Logos

NOT THE COVER ART...

1. The Light That Failed
2. An Orchid
3. I Know I Will Escape
4. Difference BT
5. St. Echo
6. Quick Canal
7. Avoid The Void
8. Nocturnal Drivers
9. My Halo
10. Eros
11. Thanatos
12. Logos

Atlas Sound is the venue for which Bradford Cox of Deerhunter creates music that he feels works better as a solo effort. Bradford has been a prolific musician since he was young. He found his pseudonym in the name of a tape recorder he used in his bedroom while teaching himself guitar. He eventually started using lots of delay pedals on his voice and guitar, all while honing a unique sound. The result is a lush and beautiful arrangement of tones and electronic effects. Definitely one of if not the biggest thing going on in the Shoegaze scene right now. This album, along with almost everything else he puts out, has it’s own atmosphere to it. For me, it transcends every other thought that I have and wraps me in a warm blanket of security. After a stressful day there is nothing better than listening to this, trust me.

This album was actually leaked by Bradford himself, through his blog, on accident. Mediafire had changed its settings so that anyone can browse through the account unless you turn it off. Bradford didn’t know this and when he posted a link for a demo someone got everything off of his account. This included Weird Era Cont., the companion to Deerhunter’s critically acclaimed Microcastle. Needless to say, Bradford was a bit pissed. It was months before an already leaked album was to come out and now it’s secret second disc was also leaked along with his solo follow up to Let The Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel.Originally, this album was tagged by Bradford himself with a picture of himself flicking off the camera. He was especially upset because this version of the album has not been mastered. He apologized on his blog but posted more sporadically for a while.

This was of great disappointment to the community that was growing around the blog, and the open discourse with fans and band members. He has stated that he is going to scrap this project completely. Later, he claimed that he was going to rewrite everything on the album. So yes, this album is a little bit old. If you’re reading this blog, you have most likely already heard it or at least heard about it. I’m posting it because I believe that it is a release worth your time. Even if it is an incomplete version, it’s still better than half of the stuff out there.

I.U.D. - The Proper Sex

1. Daddy
2. Glo Balls
3. Monk Hummer
4. 911
5. Mary Unmargaret
6. Girls Just Wanna (Time to Have Sex)

The pantheon of great sleazy sex records includes the depraved minimalist funk of Prince’s Dirty Mind and the squalid bedroom drama of Soft Cell’s Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret. Gang Gang Dance’s Lizzi Bougatsos and Growing’s Sadie Laska make a bold attempt at joining such lurid company with The Proper Sex, their first album as I.U.D. It’s a witty, spooky and abrasive record that mixes spacious dubby beats with the noise assault of the Melvins and Unsane.

Bougatsos and Laska open with the shrill metallic percussion of “Daddy.” The heliumized Kate Bush vocals will be familiar to Gang Gang Dance fans, although this music is brutally tribalistic, with less of the glazed pop of Saint Dymphna and more of the infinite space of God’s Money. The second track, “Glo Balls,” is fueled by a murderous vocal reminiscent of Whitehouse’s William Bennett or just about anyone signed to Amphetamine Reptile in the early ‘90s. It’s propelled by some jarring no-wave primitivism that sounds wonderfully debauched, variously recalling Suicide, “11,000 Volts” by Mars and the willful antagonism of early Swans...

If “Daddy” and “Glo Balls” are the foreplay, then “Monk Hummer” is an introduction to the level of degradation at which I.U.D. operates. It’s a mish-mash of porn-film inspired samples and a sludgy stop-start rhythm reminiscent of Coil and the incidental music from ‘70s splatter movies. “Monk Hummer” induces the same kind of dizzy disorientation that occurs when you unexpectedly emerge into bright sunlight from a darkened movie theater. It’s a woozy, drunken and scrappily distended track that leads into the full-on intercourse of “911” and “Mary Unmargaret.”

By this point, Bougatsos and Laska are flooding The Proper Sex with sound, abrasively adjoining coarse musical dissonance with Brian Chippendale-style grunts and lyrics like, “Someone please call the doctor/ I’ve been shot through the heart.” When they get to the album’s finale, “Girls Just Wanna (Time to Have Sex),” they’re touching you in ways that don’t feel comfortable at all. Joined by Rites of Spring guitarist Mike Fellows, the threesome produce the aural equivalent of having some large household appliances shoved into several orifices, all at the same time.

Bougatsos and Laska clearly have impeccable taste, as witnessed by the album’s cover, which pays warm homage to Sparks’ classic Big Beat. That said, The Proper Sex isn’t going to be much of a turn on for Gang Gang Dance fans enamored by the squelchy acid rhythms of Saint Dymphna. But it is a welcome blast of pungent discord, driven by a lurid sexuality that feels both filthy and funny. And they could definitely pull Prince out of his creative stupor by letting him produce the next I.U.D. album...www.prefixmag.com

Magnetic Morning- A.M.

01 spring unseen
02 at a crossroads, passive
03 indian summer
04 come back
05 no direction
06 motorway
07 the wrong turning
08 out in the streets
09 and i wonder
10 athens 5

The indie rock duo known as Magnetic Morning, comprised of Interpol drummer Sam Fogarino and Swervedrivers Adam Franklin, plans to wake up listeners with debut LP A.M. Available now digitally, the album released physically on Jan. 27 via Friend or Faux Recordings and features The Album Leafs Jimmy LaVelle on keys and The Still Outs Josh Stoddard on bass. A departure from the musicians respective bands, Magnetic Morning explores new musical terrorities, with A.M. being described by Wired as the perfect daydream release.