Record of the Week: JAILBIRD Y “UMS” EP
Every once in a while, maybe like three times in the past five years or something, I get a record for review where I spend the whole time staring at the record player, wide eyed and jaw dropped. This is so amazing I think I’m having a panic attack. It starts out in this total jazz drugs chaos that’s some kind of space between mutant disco and noise and everything is happening at once. It almost sounds like three or four amazing songs just layered on top of each other. The vocals manage to have input from rage growls, soft singing and bratty chants all at the same time. JAILBIRD Y‘s instrumentation keeps as close is it can to some kind of CONTORTIONS freak disco funk while being the cleanest chaos I’ve heard in a while. The second track switches over to some harsh drone out of nowhere but it all makes perfect sense. Like being at a nuts party where everyone’s talking and then you go outside and it’s just silence and moonlight. This is so genius. The second side pales in comparison but I kind of feel like almost anything would, it dives back into the freak disco funk arena but then has these weird melodic parts that verge into, like, RITES OF SPRING or something and I’m kind of like, “What the fuck are you doing?” but it’s still killer. Also, there is this hilarious chill acoustic guitar riff at the very end, I’m pretty sure I laughed out loud. My mind is blown, my mind is blown. (Love Over Voltage Records)
—Marissa Magic
