New Music: TRR100, Kode9 & the Spaceape, Jeffrey Bützer

The Ladies - Trapped in the Hobbit (Temporary Residence 2007)

Various Artists – TRR100: Thankful / Temporary Residence

Temporary Residence Limited is very much an old school record label, a label’s label if you will. They don’t simply put out records; they cultivate bands mostly of a particular sound, keep you obsessively checking your mailbox with limited-edition subscription mailings, put emphasis on quality, individual artwork and really build a personal relationship with their fans. Owner/operator Jeremy de Vine opened shop in Baltimore in 1996 with a few 7-inches before diving right in at TRR04 with the “Sounds of the Geographically Challenged” series which in the course of three 12-inch EPs featured exclusive tracks from Songs: Ohia, Continental OP (Will Oldham/Dave Pajo) and The For Carnation among other acts whose members resided in differing cities but still maintained a fruitful band. The second subscription series was “Travels in Constants,” a whopping 21 volumes of exclusively mail-order CDs (I think it’s about time for a renaissance of this practice) featuring unreleased material (“no lame alternate versions or low-grade out-takes”) from artists like Mogwai, Low, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Papa M and many more. After a stint in Portland, de Vine settled in its now Brooklyn home and have hit triple digits with their acclaimed discography. Over their decade-plus existence, TRL's biggest genre reputation is for being an experimental post-rock hub (for instance one of my favorite albums ever, Fridge’s Happiness) and acquired many international artists excelling in the field, but as this compilation shows, they are far from a one-trick pony. Following in the footsteps of the TRR50: Thank You compilation is TRR100: Thankful, a new collection of previously unreleased songs from nearly every band they’ve signed since #50. The expected post-rock comes in a variety of approaches; Eluvium and Mono represent their melodic minimalist take on the genre, Sleeping People and By the End of Tonight are polar opposites with jarring, menacing rhythms and knotty guitars, and The Drift brings you a happy middle-ground embellished with post-bop trumpets. You also get a healthy dose of introspective ballads, the quiet feminine electro-pop of Caroline and the Will Oldham-derived sound of LaZarus, and the unclassifiable acts of Cex (glitchy, flamboyant party-hop?) and The Ladies (Rob Crow and Zach Hill matching musical superpowers). And to rightfully cap off this backyard Brooklyn bash is The Anomoanon, Ned Oldham’s southern rock outfit. Quite obviously, TRR100 is a sporadic affair, but it features a finely culled overarching vibe thanks to the throwback attitude of Temporary Residence. Yes they want variety, yes they want to be on the cutting edge, but they don’t immediately jump on the closest passing hype bandwagon. They realize their reputation and seek out reputable bands with similar frames of mind, of which may not have the most financially appealing name but represent the TRR tag with class. It’s quite obvious the label is a labor of love and just getting a chance to drop a triple digit catalog number on the back of an album is proof that de Vine and company are doing something we all respect.



Kode9 & the Spaceape - Backward (Hyperdub 2006)

Kode9 & the Spaceape – Memories of the Future / Hyperdub

On the heels of the much-acclaimed Burial album from 2006, the UK's Hyperdub brings you yet another mutation of the grime and dubstep scenes. This time label-head Kode9 mans the board flanked by the intimidating presence of vocalist Spaceape who reigns from Los Angeles circa 2019, that's right… Blade Runner motherfucker. The dubtronic music of Memories of the Future is on some kind of backwards-ecstasy trip, it conjures visions of mechanical dance floors and streaking neon lights but in a paralyzingly slow fluid motion. Think of a grime music video where all the dancers are captured on film underwater and superimposed in a back alley London club. Spaceape's flow rarely surpasses speeds of a throaty growl as he calmly recounts stories of bloody future-world mutinies and struggling in streets patrolled by mechanical killing machines with a menacing smirk that let's you know he's been there, he's got the scars to prove it and he doesn't give a fuck about you or your survival. It's every man for himself and he's been drifting for many-a-millennia without any help. The album features the 2004 Hyperdub single 'Sine of the Dub' as well as more recent cuts like 'Kingstown', 'Backward' and '9 Samurai' among ten other brand new tracks. Memories of the Future is cavernously dark; Kode9 splices trashed loops of dubstep and plasma sludge sythns, Spaceape plays Rick Deckard with dreads and you are left to fend for yourself… Can you escape from the offworld colony?



Jeffrey Bützer - Wooden Giraffe (Lona 2006)

Jeffrey Bützer – She Traded Her Leg / Lona

Jeffrey Bützer's debut release for Hong Kong-based Lona Records is an interesting blend of street performer waltzes, minimal avant-garde doodling and soundtrack-like ditties. Influenced by the deceptively simple and subtly moving film scores by minimalist composer Michael Nyman (The Piano) and Fellini sideman Nino Rota, Bützer's songs, which typically clock in at about the two-and-a-half minute mark, sound as if specifically composed for a series short films. The album is split into two distinct halves; the first 14 tracks reminiscing of the French pop of Yann Tiersen (best known to us Americans for the Amélie soundtrack) and the second half featuring two longer songs (on of which is broken into six parts) that drift into instrumental experimentation. The first, more appealing half finds Bützer mostly arranging bright melodic percussive instruments like xylophone, glockenspiel, piano and ocarina over elastic accordion waltzes. The tracks are short enough to not wear on your nerves and frequently conjure images of French street performers and the colorful circus acts of the 40s. 'One Hundred and Sixty Three Black Bubbles' and 'Her Body is a Swamp' on the other hand rarely find any sort of recognizable melody as Bützer strums hauntingly on his autoharp over meandering xylophone totters and heavily reverberating something or another. She Traded Her Leg is definitely an interesting album for those of you that like to dig under the surface for odd fissures in pop music.