The Rubber Room column is a weekly look at recent and notable releases that don’t fall into the rubric of traditional reviewed material—namely 7”’s, 12”’s, 3” CDs, EPs, cassette-only, DVDs and MP3-only releases.

Bright Eyes
True Blue (“First Day of my Life” B-Side)
[Saddle Creek, 2005]

This throwaway flipside piece of light-hearted country pop is the best thing he’s ever done (for the record I’m not a fan of anything else he’s ever done) and makes the single well worth picking up. Tiny elements of distortion creep into the song amongst the duelling acoustics, brushed drums and general air of Ryan Adams that pervades “True Blue.” Saying ”blue” as many times as he possibly can in his wavering lachrymose heartbroken voice provides an odd balance to the nonsense narrative that he builds. On this occasion his male coquette mannerisms are endearing as opposed to mildly irritating.
[Scott McKeating]

Lese Majesty
Space
[Self-Released, 2005]

Julian Lynch’s latest recording is a cover of Tom Waits’ “Innocent When You Dream,” which in all its soaring, yet humble glory is a perfect choice for the longing young Jersey songwriter. Lese Majesty has been JL’s project since he was a teenager, when he’d record EPs under the name with whatever crowd of friends he could gather and “release” them to kids in his class. Like every other song he’s ever recorded, “Innocent When You Dream” was done on an eight-track, with Julian’s high, delicate voice multi-tracked eight times over during the “sad old feeling” chorus and a soft guitar plinking in the background. His knack for writing hopelessly catchy, 50’s style indie-pop songs has been refined now, and his latest batch of original songs, released under the title Space shows his writing approaching new heights of sophistication. Whereas before they just made musical sense—following the kind of ups and downs that you’d expect and ending up logically satisfying—they’ve now become emotionally communicative in a way that’s rare in the hook-oriented world of modern indie-pop. It’s purely formal, in other words, which is to say that the lyrics have very little to do with the loving, clear-eyed ache that emanates from the melodies. The production, also, still squeezed like blood out of wood from Julian’s trusty eight-track, has become far more textured. Opener “Lulled Into Nightmares” begins with a fierce drum machine, beating away as a theremin, a warm acoustic guitar, and a synth organ fade in and drive Julian’s blue-skied, windy melody forward. The next song, “Waiting To Spin Out Of Control,” might be the best he’s ever written, with unexpected twists and turns moving the tune over a sea of organ keys and creaking doors. Julian’s a master with his little box, pushing sounds into it until the high-end cracks and the middle swells—his voice flying above the fray and spinning melodies like some kind of graceful bird.
[Leon Neyfakh]

A Million Lights
Album CD-R
[Self-Released, 2005]

Album is the first major pass from Chris Andrews, web archivist of New Zealand music. He evokes Roy Montgomery as a reference point; the similarity lies in the privileging of melody over noise, and a reliance on humble guitar pedals to thicken the sound. Perhaps an over-reliance: often, Andrews’ constructions are weighed down by pre-set, predictable sound manipulation. But on “10 Minutes over Tokoroa” everything comes together, Andrews peeling reflective streams of tears from his guitar as he folds field recordings into the fray and eschews notes for waves. Album isn’t entirely successful, but the eloquence of “10 Minutes over Tokoroa” brims with potential.
[Jon Dale]

Crank Sturgeon
Old Cholk Codger Hereparts
[Audiobot, 2004]

Yet another missive from the Sturgeon who Cranks. The Crank gives his voice-box a thorough seeing-to: when he narrates the occurrences in his everyday world, or babbles surreal dada-spew through layers of noise, he comes on like Beefheart performing “The Dust Blows Forward…” On several cuts he guts the innards of an acoustic guitar, mumbling incoherent asides along to string evisceration. Crank Sturgeon has an utterly individual approach to both guitar playing and found sound collage: he sometimes veers close to Prick Decay territory, but that’s about the only comparison you can pin down. The spastic cut-up of George W Bush on “Walled Rand Goatee Monger” is sharp and hilarious, Dubya rendered incoherent and blasted through mile-thick walls of distortion. Packaged in an absolutely gorgeous screen-printed 7”-size fold-out sleeve.
[Jon Dale]

Sutekh
Two Rhapsodies
[Context, 2005]

One of the best producers over the past few years in American experimental techno has been Sutekh. Unfortunately, the dearth of consistent releases under his name makes it a hard case to actually prove, but his most recent 12”, “Two Rhapsodies” makes it plainly and convincingly. The A-side, “Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini, Variation 17,” is a glistening melodic beast of a tune, which might fall in line with Luciano’s recent productions if it wasn’t so hard-edged beat-wise. The B-side is similar, but has a cut-up beat that places him closer to Akufen. Luckily, the sumptuousness of the melody melds easily with the metallic click and clank that undergirds it.
[Todd Burns]