I'll Only Get Fresh On This Long Slow Dance

I've mentioned in the past that it took me seeing San Franciscans The Fresh & Onlys live (supporting Deerhunter no less) for me to truly appreciate what they did, as on record I couldn't get past the poppiness of their tracks - it all felt staid to me. I've since become a convert. This year could see me become a zealot though. What with great solo records from Tim Cohen and Wymond Miles, and now their impending LP Long Slow Dance (out September 4 through Mexican Summer), the quartet are doing all they can to "rectify" their past undoings (this last comment is aimed squarely at me, folks, before I get the backlash and death threats - although is any F&O fan straight enough to get that wound up? I know that I'm not...) The album physically looks beautiful, and if the two singles that have been released (which you can get as 7"s) the album will be the aural equivalent.


See what I mean about the beauty of the package? Get in fast and grab any/all of these releases here, here and here.

Massuchusetts Dreaming

"All the leaves are brown (the leaves are brown)/And the Quilt is grey (and the Quilt is greeeeeeeEEEEEEEY!)"

I know that this came out last year, and my friend Si sent it over back then, but I have only gotten it now. The pastoral, shimmering psych that is steeped in boy/girl acid harmonies, Mamas/Papas regions that Massachusetts band Quilt proffers is something I didn't like at first (I think I was heavily intoxicated on The Men and Total Control at that stage), but this self titled LP on Mexican Summer is killing me today. It also has some of that Woodsman style of warped, languid psych, like a bubbling brook of crystal-clear LSD. These are actual songs, with actual singing too, so to take me into the astral tundra with my buffalo totem pole there is only one album I would take on my spiritual awakening...

Combining with Mount Carmel, it would appear that I would love to be in the late 60s/early 70s of America right about now. And incredibly fucking high. I really need to get out of the office...

This isn't a 2012 album, but who cares? Get Quilts right now. RIGHT. NOW. It's amazing.

Quilt - Penobska Oakwalk
Quilt - Cowboys In The Void
Quilt - Milo

Dropping Out From Radiation

This one has been played incessantly for months, and sitting around for me to post about it so long that another release has already come and gone also! So it is with Apache Dropout, whose self-titled LP made my top albums list for last year. The Indiana three-piece hit on angular garage punk with some mainlined psych fuzz and some Jagerbombs to boot - these guys are the gas. It really is a rip-roaring release, and 'Teenager' just plainly kills...



Apache Dropout - Teenager

Then along comes Radiation a three song taster that is just as good albeit much shorter in length. Put out through Mexican Summer, it heightens the psych motorik preamble, yet somehow remains coherent and concise. A lovely surprise of the smokiest order.



Apache Dropout - Radiation
Apache Dropout - School Girl

But they aren't slacking off. Trouble In Mind are releasing a 4-way split 7" that the band did with the excellent Mikal Cronin (another I missed out on posting about last year - his album is just as rad), The Paperhead and Liminanas for the upcoming Record Store Day. Keep up the mind-melting work, lads.

Oneohtrix Point Never/Oneohtrix Point Never/Oneohtrix Point Never/Oneohtrix Point Never...

We have had quite a few collaborations this year that have left a lot to be desired. One such concoction in my opinion was Ford & Lopatin's Channel Pressure, an album that despite some interesting production and a couple incredible songs, was rather lacklustre and in the end throwaway. It was a major disappointment for me as I'm a fan of one half of the act, Daniel Lopatin, especially under the moniker Oneohtrix Point Never. It took me a while to "get into" him, but Returnal of last year was ridiculously incredible. And the remix he did of the title track with Antony Hegarty? The kid's a genius.

Now we are on the cusp of his next release, Replica, out next week on Mexican Summer (the 8th, same day as Electric Flower's EP actually). And holy shit if he doesn't bring it all back on track once more. There is that elliptical eloquence that wafts in and out of this futuro-Gothic numbers, an effect wholly Lopatin's - all smoke, mirrors and gaudy, glow-in-the-dark skeletons in the closet. Why this isn't the score for every horror remake I don't know - you could just imagine that the music would morph the story into a soft-lens nightmare of sensuously horrific proportions...

An incredible, otherworldly album, pre-order Replica here.

Oneohtrix Point Never - Replica
Oneohtrix Point Never - Sleep Dealer