Every once in a while, it’s nice to revisit a few favorites from earlier in the year.

Stars Like Fleas– As Hard As You Want, [Sun Lights Down on the Fence]

I said:

Musically speaking, the album moves in territory somewhere between Robert Wyatt’s brilliant Cuckooland and later Talk Talk. But where Mark Hollis and company traded in the judicious economy of music, Stars Like Fleas trades in the oppositional binary—filling the sonic palette to the brim at every opportunity. It’s a pure fusion of the organic and digital that excites, sounding like little else that has come before it. The elements used to create it are numerous, but usually simple acoustic accoutrements: flutes, clarinets, saxophones, guitars, pianos and a host of others. Luckily, the singular vision of Fields is realized throughout, tying the disparate instruments together into a tight finished product. For listeners looking for what Talk Talk would sound like if they were working in the dust of Texas and in the 21st century, Stars Like Fleas is the closest approximation to it. For listeners looking for easy answers, Stars Like Fleas offers few.

[visit Stars Like Fleas’ website here, buy Sun Lights Down on the Fence here, read the rest of my Stylus review here]

Bernard Szajner– Welcome (To Deathrow), [Volga Select Presents So Young But So Cold: Underground French Music 1977-1983]

I said:

The majority of attention that was paid to the post-punk underground was focused on one country in Europe: Britian. Luckily, the good people at Tigersushi have rectified one country’s omission from the collective musical narrative of the post-punk/new wave underground: France. And what a fertile underground it was. Over the course of 73 minutes a panoply of sounds and ideas are presented, all tied together loosely by the sounds of the synthesizer. The synthesizer is the main musical force of Bernard Szajner’s “Welcome (To Death Row)”, along with hammering drum machines destroying everything in its path. Unexpectedly, all of this is background for a glorious piano loop and, eventually, a guitar lick that mirrors it for a short time before going off on its own tangent. If anything, this song is worth the price of admission alone.

[visit Tigersushi’s website here, buy So Young But So Cold here, read the rest of my Stylus review here]

Lil Scrappy– F.I.L.A. (Screwed and Chopped), [The King of Crunk & BME Recordings Present…]

I said:

While it may be anathema to each group (although it’s little discussed in the content of the tracks) in terms of getting as many royalties as they would otherwise, this release that introduces Lil’ Scrappy and Trillville to the major label world is both sound marketing decision and fantastic product for music fan. Forcing each artist to cut the fat, both of ATL’s crunkest only get twenty tracks between the two of them to display their wares and prove their worth…The perhaps most mind-bending piece on the Scrappy side is the psychedelic production of “F.I.L.A” —ostensibly both shoe commercial and love letter to Atlanta (Forever I Love…). The chorus is ridiculously compacted, forcing Scrappy to rush the words in the style of a dancehall MC, but it can easily be ignored in favor of the truly insane sonics that Lil’ Jon employs here. Anyone that argues that crunk may be artistically unviable for long-term success can merely look here to realize Jon has more tricks up his sleeve than previously thought.

For even further proof of the sheer weirdness of this track, take a listen to the also provided screwed and chopped version, which further lays out Lil Jon’s production to the listener, making sure that they know that it’s essentially made up of nothing more than errant whooshes and buzzing sine waves.

[visit Scrappy’s website here, buy The King of Crunk & BME Recordings Present… here, read the rest of my Stylus review here]