La Big Vic - Actually (Orange Milk, 2011)

La Big Vic – Actually
Orange Milk 2011

La Big Vic is a Brooklyn trio consisting of keyboardist Peter Pearson, guitarist Toshio Masuda, and violinist/lead singer Emilie Friedlander (co-editor of Altered Zones). This cassette is a reissue of a vinyl release on Underwater Peoples.

"LYNY" features a mid-tempo bass beat with atmospheric electric guitar and sweeping, cascading synths. The vocals are drenched in a vocoder effect, singing, “I love you, I need you.” The bass beat is replaced by a more upbeat drum set/rock rhythm as the whole song is energetically lifted with dreamy, chanting vocals, oscillating synths, and louder drones. "Heyo Silver Morning" in the beginning incorporates a groovy drum machine rhythm and beautiful vocals from Friedlander (they don’t sound English?). A 4/4 standard bass beat enters among the initial rhythm along with a scorching, psyched out guitar and more ambient synth sounds. In between the vocal part there’s an awesome synth melody/solo that is played in a pentatonic, east Asian-sounding scale. Great song. "Chinese Wedding" is composed of layers of synth drone cascading and improvising in a free form, pentatonic vein. Quite pretty. "Musica" features long-form, melancholic violin (which up until now, hasn’t really been heard much) mixed with a slow paced drum machine. Towards the end of the song the guitar enters the forefront in its scorching, psychedelic style, improvising freely in a blues scale.

Cassette for purchase: http://www.storenvy.com/products/230665-la-big-vic-actually-cs

Cream Juice - s/t (Orange Milk, 2012)

Cream Juice – s/t
Orange Milk 2012

Cream Juice is Keith Rankin (Giant Claw) and Seth Graham (Henry Dawson – formerly Quilt). This is their debut full-length. Track 1 begins with blippy, synth layered wash and then quickly softens its tone and enters a more long-form, drone section with slow, light, synth pulses. The drones turn into beautiful, harmonious arpeggios rising up and down and become filtered in more synth wash, blips, and pulses. There is definitely a sense of freedom, independence, and improvisation heard in the music as the synths quickly and unexpectedly shift in texture. Their more improvisatory side can be noticed especially on Track 3, featuring an a-rhythmic, synth solo mixed with more noisey, explosive synth. Track 5 begins with queasy, wavering, new age synth drone, transitioning into bubbling, synth pulses very condensely packed, meaning lots of pulses in a small space. Throughout the album there is a great deal of synth exploration and experimentation.

Cassette for purchase: http://www.storenvy.com/products/230657-cream-juice-self-titled-cs

Ashley Paul - Slow Boat (Orange Milk, 2012)

Ashley Paul – Slow Boat
Orange Milk 2012

According to Paul’s website, she uses a mixture of saxophone, clarinet, voice, prepared strings and bells. On this album, she is joined by NYC based musician Eli Keszler on percussion.

"The Places" features spastic, staccato, free form electric guitar/strings that sound kind of muted. It sounds very stark and sparse. Vocals enter into the mix and they are very light, high-pitched, slightly off key, and dissonant, kind of mimicking the sound and slow pace of the electric guitar. It’s a very demented and damaged aesthetic. Paul’s vocals sort of remind me of Satomi Matsuzaki’s from Deerhoof, only because of their light and gentle nature, although stylistically they are a bit different. "Tell Me" begins with sparse, spastic percussion, guitar, and clarinet. Then a slow drum set rhythm begins and vocals enter in their slow, light, gentle style, singing lyrics. The drums go in and out of the rhythm they’re riding, sometimes freely improvising on their own, which bodes well with the spastic guitar. The title track, "Slow Boat" consists of more long form, droning sounds. The clarinet has more of a presence, and the vocals are more stretched out. There is clattering percussion that sounds like metal, which, juxtaposed with the softer, slower sounds, kind of gives the piece some “dirt.” "All I See" is a pretty quiet piece because it mostly features this bass-y, bowed cymbal-like sound. The vocals, guitar, and squeaky clarinet all come and go in gentle waves, playing intermittently. Towards the end of the song, the clarinet plays beautiful high-pitched drones, at times oscillating and wavering. "February" features a wide palette of sonic textures, ranging from fluttering woodwinds and high-pitched string harmonics to crunchy, electronic buzz. "Right Behind" consists of languid, melancholic vocals and piano, which is a nice departure from the more commonly found set-up on the rest of the album. "Hide" incorporates eerie, high-pitched, bowed strings droning in dissonance with clarinet tones and intermittent crotales-like bells, creating quite a dream-like headspace.

LP for purchase: http://www.storenvy.com/products/268683-ashley-paul-slow-boat-lp