New Music: Dosh, Scott Solter Plays Pattern is Movement, Julie Sokolow, Crime in Choir

Dosh - Um, Circles and Squares - The Lost Take (Anticon 2006)


Dosh – The Lost Take / Anticon

I’m not sure what I was expecting the first time I saw Dosh perform live, but it definitely wasn’t the skinny trucker-looking dude that perched down behind the drums as the lights dimmed with a guitar in lap and an array of flanking keyboards and samplers. He then proceeded to put on such an amazing melodic stutter of a show that he looked no longer trucker-like, but slightly resembling Jesus (but that could have been just the strategic back lighting and PBR #8). If there was any music that could be described as heavenly though, it would be the one-man-show that is Martin Dosh. For this third LP, Minneapolis’s finest completely out does himself and any prior indications of what this album could be with 12 amazing tracks of shimmering post-rock that sounds like Steve Reich reading The Books while tripping out to some Tortoise vibe. With the help of frequent tour-mate Andrew Bird as well as members of Fog and Tapes ‘n Tapes, Dosh has masterfully strewn together the warmest characteristics of all things post- into one of the best albums of the year.




Scott Solter Plays Pattern Is Movement - In Glasstone - Canonic (Hometapes 2006)


Scott Solter Plays Pattern is Movement – Canonic / Hometapes

While über-popular indie-rock bands like The Mountain Goats, Spoon and John Vanderslice are wreaking the subtle benefits of crisp and inventive production on their latest records, the man responsible for such studio wizardry, Scott Solter, stays humbly under the radar. Following a solid solo full-length earlier this year, Solter has brought out the grease, razor and tape for some old school dub remixing… these are classic techniques were talking about, some King Tubby or Abbey Road cool-out shit. His source material is from innovative math-rock band Pattern is Movement (Solter produced their last record, Stowaway), and the gritty, beautifully imperfect final product justifies the whole idea of the remix way more than some 4-on-the-floor, let’s dance nonsense. Polyrhythms fight their way through crackled tape hiss to only be surpassed by snaking sounds of guitars and synths, ghostly vocals and unrecognizable mathematical noise. This is a very cool unpredictable album from a man whose studio comes before his home and a wonderful homage to classic audio experimentation.




Julie Sokolow - Alternations - Something About Violins (Western Vinyl 2006)


Julie Sokolow – Something About Violins / Western Vinyl

With today’s rampant technology, recording an album on one’s own in a manner that is aesthetically lo-fi can result in a self-produced record with a surprisingly high amount of fidelity and clarity. Julie Sokolow’s Something About Violins should be all the proof you need. Utilizing just her voice, a $30 acoustic, a touch of keys and her built-in Mac G4 microphone, Sokolow recorded her debut album with little need for pricey equipment (besides the comp of course) or skilled engineers with very promising results. With a penchant for crafty songwriting and an endearing, accessible voice, she truly embodies the dimly lit bedroom in her confessional lyrics and minimal accompaniment that slides from sketchy to sexy with the slightest of breezes. Most effective when layering her voice in contrasting melodies and wavering textures, she approaches Cocorosie territory on many occasions, but never sacrifices good songwriting for unnecessary over-quirk. This is a very promising debut from an inventive young songstress who, with a wider array of tools, could really shine.




Crime in Choir - Land of Sherry Wine and Spanish Horses - Trumpery Metier (GSL 2006)


Crime in Choir – Trumpery Metier / GSL

Bent on fulfilling the gaping hole of a life-void that can only be filled with triumphant instrumental prog-rock comes San Francisco’s Crime in Choir. Made up of five ambitious musicians, of which were in early line-ups of At the Drive-In as well as members of The Fucking Champs, Citay and The Mass (also Hella’s Zach Hill was the original drummer), C in C thrives on the manic drumming of math-rock, the sparkling keyboard arpeggios of prog, the swirling effects and bombastic saxophone solos of fusion and sheer grandness of arena rock. Comparable in ideals to bands like Faust, Goblin and Magma as well as to the experimentation of fusion pioneers like Soft Machine, the Choir’s best contemporary similarity that could be made would be to acts like The Fucking AM or even Don Caballero. The music of Trumpery Metier is complex, ambitious, bombast and whole truckload of fun no matter if you are diehard prog-revivalist or just a rock fan looking to throw up some devil horns.