Wet Hair :: Spill Into Atmosphere :: De Stijl

A bit of quiet time to blast my ears out, an empty house to welcome in my unholy hosts, a fresh-cooked meal to scrape into the garbage and opt for leftovers, three open beds to pass out on the hardwood floor.  Must be the Olympics.  Naked dudes diving in unison, Ning Ding playing ping pong, etc.

Wet Hair release a new long-player so simultaneously adventurous and cohesive, it could only come from the collective mind of three rigid aesthetes.  Makes sense, then, that it's borne of Night-People label-heads Shawn Reed and Ryan Garbes, with the additional help of newcomer Justin Thye.  The textures that kick off the record are as fucked up as chewing on fluorescent tubes and chasing them with twizzler reduction, but as the songs unfold, the atmosphere of three-dudes-in-a-room becomes absolutely conceivable.  Live drums, dry bass, and swarms of poison sawtooth leads are the basic ingredients.  Relentlessly positive in execution, this record holds resemblance to kraut overachievers La Dusseldorf - kicking up red dust in a martian garage, with battle cries to push onward.  Only on "Blank Sunday" does a drum-program surface, fully servicing the album's transit and providing a purely kitsch respite.  Seven songs deep, 40 minutes long, and one ear-spanning worm wide - I've been cheering adolescent girls in uneven bars more enthusiastically than ever.


Reed is sane enough to not release material on his own label, so pick up a copy over at De Stijl and start getting excited about interstellar ladder-climbing. 

Review :: Featureless Ghost :: MindBody

Got this tape in a few weeks ago, part of a batch from Night People, and I think it's the best thing to happen to me in 2012 so far. Seriously, before this, it was that skinned knee I got (just good to feel something, know what I'm saying?). But since this tape arrived I've been content just lolling around on the carpet with it. Propping it up on pillows on the living room floor, building fires in the fireplace, and laying around with a glass of Cab until the night drifts away from us. Been taking it out for bike rides, too, exploring new neighborhoods on the lookout for a cute cafe or maybe a yoga studio. One of our favorite things: buying cheeses neither of us has tried before.

Turns out Featureless Ghost goes through these motions with everyone. Trampin their way through cassette decks across the globe. But fuck it, I'm ready to be used. "Know-U" is the jam. Mas synthwave por favor. "Different Way" is the dance floor hit that may actually get me out on the dance floor. "Cool Dream" slips into a solidly psyched-out void from which it's hard to rebound your spacecraft.

It's cold, dark, and creepy material. Green ooze chockfull of designer mutagens.  Next time a tornado comes I want to take this album out to the storm shelter with me and plant the seeds for a superior, possibly winged race of people. Together we'll emerge and spread the word of OUR LORD AKAI. Even our elbow patches will have Ray Bans. Our turtlenecks will be wearing hair gel.

Pick it up from Night People. Everything they put out's fucking essential.




Bonus vid (pretend it's an Easter egg):

This video produced by Swan 7 for Newtown Radio is also a falling bomb worth planting yourself under: