This melodic and ethereal single skates the edge between punk and indie, with retro UK shoegaze influences like early SLOWDIVE or CHAMELEONS. The melodies are catchy but sophisticated, and the song structures keep the momentum going. The occasional hard edge switches up the dynamic on “Days Gone,” but overall this could have been an ’80s radio hit.
21st century renaissance man MAX NORDILE continues his assault on logic with another solo joint that defies expectations and rewards those predisposed to the counter-intuitive. You may know him from art-punk units like PREENING and UZI RASH, but when left to his own devices, Max gets into a heap of trouble and makes an intriguing mess—a “Public Pile” according to one track. Opener “Deep Face” sounds like ALASTAIR GALBRAITH having a bad day, while other cuts suggest CAROLINER playing it straight. “Diligent Pores” is an extended meditation that steeps coffee shop clatter and submerged guitar noise in a broken teacup. By the end of the album, the microphone is in the waffle iron and your head is in the radiator and everything is in its proper place.
The connecting concept across both originals here are repurposed shards from the FALL and the HOMOSEXUALS, each serving as springboards for the fast/easy/cheap immediacy on display. Hard to argue with knock-’em-dead shit like that, though it’s merely the seed, not the whole plant, from which SOFT SHOULDER sprouts nicely. All told, it serves their mad scientist tendencies quite well. Have a go, you’ll live longer.
Certain records require listening at specific times of the day. I kept trying to listen to this LP in the evening and it just wasn’t working for me. Now listening to it on a cold-but-sunny Sunday morning while I drink a steaming cup of tea, it all makes sense. It’s like having a nice conversation. The vocals are sing-spoken in a relaxed tone while the minimalist music peppily and jerkily moves them along. It is jazzy math rock with art-punk musings. Not the New One is a collection of songs from many different versions of the group recorded between 2015–2019, but it does not feel disjointed. It keeps you entertained and even gets you out of your chair to dance a little bit.
Gilgongo Records mainman James Fella is an industrious sort. His label is constantly releasing interesting, occasionally great, art-damaged records by an array of projects. His own group, SOFT SHOULDER, is the best of these, and for the last year, they have been on a tear, including two excellent LPs. This 7″ is the third single in the last twelve months, and it continues their streak. Both sides were stitched together from remotely-recorded parts, pandemic-style. “Copy Machine” features the band’s current line-up for a quick primer of their fractured aesthetic, while “Fall Down” brings in past members and associates for free jazz-like deconstruction. New LP coming soon!
Latest LP from this Sonoran noise rock recording project, who have apparently been going at it for around fifteen years now. This LP is made up of fourteen tracks, most of which clock in under two minutes, and touches on noisy post-punk, dance-y synth punk, and no wave. In its best moments it sounds a little like the A FRAMES with a late ’90s JON SPENCER production—in its worst, it sounds like the FAINT. I don’t know if I’ll be dipping back into this one, but the time I spent with it was enjoyable enough.
James Fella and friends have been cranking out SOFT SHOULDER releases in the Arizona desert for close to two decades now (like, a lot of them—I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a lathe operation somewhere that is single-handedly being kept in business by this crew), generally sprouting through various cracks between collapsing improv avant-punk and blown-out no wave antagonism, but the more overtly FALL-indebted turn they’ve taken over the past year or two is by far my favorite incarnation of the project. Smile Building’s Exit opener “Raw Time” is pulled along by a gouging, infinite loop bass line that’s simultaneously filthy and funky, like A FRAMES with a serious GANG OF FOUR fixation, abetted by a spring-loaded disco beat and Fella’s stream-of-Mark E. vocals that sound like they were recorded on an answering machine circa 1987, and “Narrow Yellow Slip” follows a similarly wavering line, with deadpan-shouty lyrical ruminations about PO boxes punctuated by stabbing synth squeals, while “Dual Deck’s Decay” adds some skronking sax and extra-trebly guitar clang to its droning Messthetics-gone-Krautrock outro. Total prole art threat damage.
SOFT SHOULDER has been refining their brand of angular, no-kilter post-punk for quite some time. Calling them prolific feels like an understatement…at last peek, there were no less than 34 releases listed on their Discogs page, and a sizable grip of those appear to be lathe-cut 5”s. Incredibly niche. Aptly titled, It’s All a Small World After brings us sixteen tracks of unadulterated worship at the altar of the FALL. There’s just no way around the comparison when the vocalist sounds like a dead ringer for Mark E. Smith. When a group’s sound is so closely aligned with a classic band (essentially homage territory), the question of originality recedes and is replaced by the more immediate concern of execution. After all, aping the FALL is a bit different than trying to sound like the RAMONES (not that many have actually pulled that off very well either, in truth). I’m happy to report that they do in fact pretty much nail it. And, you know, originality may well be a long dead farce at this stage anyway. Worth a spin if you enjoy the modern sounds of URANIUM CLUB, COOL GREENHOUSE, VINTAGE CROP, ’80s UK DIY, or uh, the FALL.
