In Jasper Vol. 3, No. 4: Record Review - Doomslang's Stay At Home EP

"Doomslang, the pet project of Joshua McCormack, straddles some heretofore unseen line between The Residents, Bon Iver, and Broken Social Scene. That’s a line I wasn’t sure I thought existed, largely because the quirkiness and hesitancy may not necessarily be fully intentional. Carrying the highest banner for lo-fi production, “Tonight’s Offerings” sees liquid treatments of hissy, smoky vocals, with tenuous rhythmic treatments of electronic sounds and Moldy Peaches-style guitar playing. There is a certain naiveté to the song – and much of the album – that vacillates between irascible and endearing. “Dawgie Lullaby,” the third track on the record, drifts quietly into what sounds like it could be an unreleased track from Her Space Holiday or old-school Xiu Xiu as McCormack sings  with a close-to-the-mic intimacy as his vocals almost turn away before as the necessary chimes and drums come in to flesh the song out. McCormack’s androgynous voice doesn’t soar so much as it flows through the drifting through the terrain on “I’m Supposin’,” a song which capitalizes on the various techniques – spatial, instrumental, rhythmic, melodic – that McCormack tests out through the rest of the album. This is the closest McCormack gets to channeling Kevin Drew, as “Nerf Hospital” sounds like it could comfortable fit on the last third of a KC Accidental album.

McCormack has talent. There’s something to be said for his tiny symphonies and the delicate monologues, but it isn’t without its issues, both formally and structurally; musically, there is a preponderance of stasis, and rather than fully-formed melodic lines, ideas tend to be individual points that rarely fully evolve. Still, I would love to see McCormack iron out some of the technical ideas – and spend more time mastering, especially – that he did here. It would be well worth McCormack pairing up with additional musicians, as he did in “Nerf Hospital,” and more fully fleshing out his musical universe. It’s one that seems worth exploring." – Tom Dempster

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In Jasper Vol. 3, No. 4: Record Review - We Roll Like Madmen's The Kids Must Die

"Recently signed to Post-Echo, this remarkably compelling experimental electronic dance music duo called Clemson home prior to their relocation to Columbia late last year. It’s a welcome addition to our local scene, particularly with the release of The Kids Must Die, a 5 song EP that sees the group adding hip-hop flourishes (and guest MCs) to their sonic arsenal. While the most characteristic part of their sound is Jordan Young’s emotive vocals, which are often pitched and processed in interesting ways, it’s the way the he and partner Chris Tollack build sonic landscapes of pulsating synths, roving bleeps and blurps, and oddball percussion to create a thoroughly heady mix that really excites. Bringing to mind the adventurous innovation of Daft Punk in spirit if not always in practice, their compositions always seem relentless more than anything, rarely stopping their idiosyncratic twists and turns to catch a breath.

Still, it’s the two guest MCs who are going to get much of the buzz here—scene mainstay FatRat da Czar sounds reinvigorated by the new territory of Tollack and Young’s beats, with his husky flow taking on a next texture in the reverb-y world of EDM. His wizened confidence sits somewhat uncomfortably next to Young’s pained vocals, but it somehow works to acknowledge the exciting distance the performance bridges. It’s a similar experience for Believe (Grand Prize Winner from Last Year), whose first verse on the opening cut “On” gradually builds the song to its riveting, dubstep-influenced climax, and then proceeds to skitter another verse over top of the throbbing riffs that constitute the song’s coda.

It’s not all pounding rhythms, though—WRLM try out everything here from spacey melodies and ambient white noise to clean dance grooves and genuine pop hooks over the course of these five songs, evincing a wide-eyed sense of adventure that should be fun to follow as the duo continues to evolve." –Kyle Petersen

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In Jasper Vol. 3, No. 4: Record Review - FK MT's Underwater Goddammit EP

"Beginning somewhere between a Modest Mouse riff and a Yo La Tengo drone, “out ov it” – the second cut on fk mt.’s EP underwater goddammit – bristles, demanding to escape a distortion pedal. The vocalist, Ryan Morris, jumps into the fray, channeling what may have been Wayne Coyne’s younger brother. Ryan pushes the upper range of his voice into often uncomfortable spaces, bemoaning an oft-heard sentiment in under-30 guitar rock: why, oh why, must I continue to screw it all up? The lyrics – few and sparse, unadorned and direct – channel straight to the heart of angst, with cleanly-grafted and driving guitar work pushing against the often-dragging, less insistent and much more unsure drums laid down on the track. “Good listener,” the EP’s opener, demonstrates a thoughtful riff and sophisticated harmonic treatment, and a much more mature lyrical treatment, at least from a formal standpoint. The track still suffers from an unsteady pulse in the drums, though the tension and push-me, pull-you does not go unnoticed as the singer laments “I had a plan to get myself together / But it all fell through on account of the changing weather.”

“Take it slower,” the most accomplished cut on the EP, stands out for numerous reasons, though chiefly for a much-needed differentiation in the treatment of guitars and more tempered approach to texture. Lyrically, it’s the strongest too, clearly showing the decentered desperation the other two songs dance around. The length is right, too – the musical pacing fits well with the straightforward vocals, which Ryan delivers in a broader, though more comfortable, range." – Tom Dempster

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In Jasper Vol. 3, No. 3: Record Review – Youth Model's All New Scars LP

"This pop-rock turn from longtime drummer Matt Holmes comes across as an impressive studio collaboration, with Holmes taking songwriting and composition duties but allowing Archer Avenue producer Kenny McWilliams to track bass, guitars, keys, and backing vocals to elegantly flesh out the drummer’s originals. The end result is an album that escapes feeling too generic through the fact that Holmes is an able songwriting craftsmen and an understated-yet-engaging vocalist who gets McWilliams’ hyper-polished treatment. And while Holmes borrows from a host of influences, from The Black Keys and OK Go to The Killers and Kings of Leon, he tends to be a synthesizer rather than imitator, lending Youth Model a pleasant (and surprising) sense of authenticity rather than a crass bid for mainstream success." - Kyle Petersen

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Record Review: Sunshone Still - ThewaytheworldDies

Easily one of the most noteworthy acts in the South Carolina music scene (the group was recently named as one of the standouts from the state by Paste Magazine and has gotten rave reviews from both NPR and No Depression), Sunshone Still is the band/recording project of one Chris Smith, a local business owner who also happens to be a sharp-eyed indie folk-rocker with a love for nylon strings and Nick Drake (the name Sunshone Still is actually derived from one of Drake’s lyrics). In 2007, he produced an ambitious, weighty song cycle on Kit Carson and manifest destiny. Entitled Ten Cent American Novels and written in distinct chapters, the album painted an exquisitely harrowing image of Carson that belies the cheap, one-dimensional tales of its namesake.

On that record and one prior, 2005’s Dead Letters, Smith was mainly performing as a 21^st century version of his somber hero, with a focus on a spare, intimate atmosphere over more traditional folk-rock. His hushed, beautifully haunting vocals and quiet backing played a big role on these albums, even though Smith was never averse to electric guitar flourishes and a drum kit (particularly on the more elaborate TCAN).

For his most recent effort, however, Smith has upped the ante.  While featuring his typically bleak-yet-literate subject matter (many of these songs are inspired by the recent suicide of his brother), Smith for the first time has an electric guitar in his hands more than an acoustic, and it shows. He’s also more willfully experimental than in the past, with a couple of songs that take liberally from the desert Mariachi feel of the Southwest indie rock band Calexico (the trumpet solo on the end of the title cut is particularly awesome) and one tune (“Boot”) that features a blues-industrial loop and a hip-hop bridge that is easily one of the most interesting tracks Smith has ever put to tape.

More than this move away from traditional into a freer sense of experimentation, the move to the electric, full-band approach gives a needed edge to the comfortably dusky and heavily melancholic vocals that are Smith’s trademark. Songs like “Jesus from the Chain,” performed on acoustic guitar, would fit comfortably on his earlier efforts, but add a distorted guitar and some eerily plucked piano notes, and the tune suddenly has a lunging urgency that carries the listener far more effectively to the denouement, where a dark string section and heavily reverbed percussion capture the catharsis in Smith’s enigmatic lyrics.

Other tunes like “I Would Kill” and “8 lbs” are almost straightforwardly country rock enough to make the group sound comfortable in the barroom for the first time, although not a whole lot of dancing would really take place to songs as heavy as these.

The album ends with two cuts that bring the acoustic guitar back to the fore, an appropriate move since the subject moves from grief and mourning to cartharsis and hope. The closing number (“Was and Will Be”), in particular, manages to shift the mood entirely, with a gentle accordion and a great guest vocal from Danielle Howle pushing a gentle lullaby as Smith’s lyrical focus shifts from the loss of his brother to the future of his young son.

It’s a beautiful, well-assembled record whose songs seem tautly bound together in a way that even the concept laden TCAN didn’t. And for my money, its easily one of the best efforts put forth by a Columbia musician this year.