Non Plus Temps Desire Choir LP
Dub-punk damage from the preternaturally prolific, small-circle Oakland scene with overlapping personnel from groups like the WORLD, NAKED ROOMMATE, RAYS, FAMOUS MAMMALS, and PREENING (among others) fixed at its center. During the lingering pandemic shutdowns and social lulls of 2021, Andy Human and Sam Lefebvre started recording drum and bass tracks on a practice space tape machine for what would eventually become NON PLUS TEMPS, under the spiritual guidance of the wobbly post-punk/dub grooves of Adrian Sherwood’s On-U Sound label—it’s a looser, cut-up variation on a theme that Andy has previously explored in the WORLD’s skronked-out ESSENTIAL LOGIC-isms and NAKED ROOMMATE’s liquid electro-beat, with the distinctive heat-shimmer vocals from Amber Sermeno (co-conspirator in both of those projects) serving as an additional connective thread on a number of Desire Choir’s rubbery mutant funk sprawls, like “Continuous Hinge” and “Book (Dub).” The promise of any sort of synthesis of the NORMAL and VIVIEN GOLDMAN hinted at in the title of “Warm Launderette” is quickly dashed, with Candace Lazarou of BODY DOUBLE offering a melodic backing counterpart to Andy’s fractured, surrealist narrations over squealing sax to conjure a major Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy/Another Green World ENO vibe, and “Reversible Mesh” beams shuddering dub beats into deep space, with spectral, disembodied vocals circling beneath layers of warped and disintegrating synth texture. It’s a real trip; the rhythm is going to get you!