Review Round Up

What I’ve been into the past week or so:

Puerto Rico Flowers- 4.  This is the sound of a million Goth dance floors at 5 AM after it has wound down and only the faithful and jobless are still out and about.  Joy Division dirges at Mozart’s Requiem speeds.  The vocal inflection is a really good affectation of the whole Deathrock vocal style before it melted back into horrific trance music and pretended it was EBM.  The four songs read like a typical night out, “Not My Idea” to “Let’s Make Friends” to “Torture” to “This is Murder”.  There is talk of a dark music revival in “hip” culture, and will probably find an audience of people who are interested in that.  $8 from Fan Death Records.  Get it now because it’s selling out fast.

Airfix Kits – Flextime.  This was described to me as Minutemen meets Gang of Four, and I can see where that comes from.  This EP is three excellent “post punk” songs that move along at a really fast clip.  Flextime is an ode to a shitty job that let’s you come and go at your leisure and about how almost anything in your day is worth it for that freedom.  I’ve never worked flextime but yeah it sounds pretty heavenly.  There’s a strong pop element with clap percussion and background “la la la” that will have you happily bopping along at your current, non-flextime job.   Rounding out the B-Side are 80s Aesthetic, which I took to be kind of ironic given their sound.  The final track is 21 Hot Knives, a song built for screaming at the top of your lungs at concerts spilling beer over your hands as you dance around manically gripping a pint and smiling manically.    I got my copy from Sorry State Records but it’s available directly from the band for $5.  I’ve ordered the other EP they have and looking forward to it.

Best Fwends – K R U S H E R.  This is a tour EP that they’ve generously made available online as a pay what you will for 320 KBPS.  I’ve been following this band since 2006 and I can honestly say that this is their best, most diverse release yet.  17 songs ranging from Breakcore IDM / Metalmashups of “Unholy”, to the Casio Metal Jams of “Eradicator” (which has atonal keyboards envelopes standing in for the typical lead guitar noodling), there are tracks with other bands such as Japanther, Twin Power (the pretty amazing Summer Pop of “One Dead Body”), also included are skits, a song about cannibal romance (“Hungry For Love”), and a dance remix of a dance remix (the unkillable M.Y.S.E.L.F.).  I hate to say this has something for everybody, but I think in the right environment, you could get away with just playing this collection at a party.  Get it here.

KOOL A.D. – Zoot Fantastic. Half of Das Racist has teamed up with Lil Ben and released another short project.  I don’t want to say this is “experimental rap” but it doesn’t really fall into any easy categorization in content or flow.  It’s certainly more challenging than Das Racist’s typical output with the drone static beat behind “THAT IS HOT DUDE” or the nearly ten minute long “TIME WARNER” which features what I think is just a reading of Time Warner’s cable channel offerings played over a sample I can’t quite place.  “FRUCTOSE, SODIUM” structured pretty conventionally while the raps are even more outre’.  It’s certainly worth a listen.  Free From Here