New Music: Bark Bark Bark, Juho Kahilainen

Bark Bark Bark - Haunts (Retard Disco 2007)

Bark Bark Bark - Haunts / Retard Disco

Graduation last week, a quick jaunt down to the beaches of Charleston this week... Where will the humble international man of mystery writing this particular post find himself next week? Chances are it won't be in Arizona, but apparently that's my loss... And here I was thinking the entire state worshipped at the altars of either Authority Zero (Andiamo, very clever) or The Format (Sore thumbs remind me of my old college days). Maybe that's still true, but one Jacob Cooper is doing his part to ensure that the tastes of the three men behind 20jazzfunkgreats aren't lost in the deserts surrounding Tucson A-Z.

In fact, it quite surprises me those guys weren't more on top of Retard Disco's latest release because it seems like it was hand-crafted for them. This requires a little more Internet savvy than the usual lamedrop, but to cut the metablogging short: Cooper is sort of like Liars or maybe Chromatics with the emphasis on homespun electronics taking darker turns with monotone vocals and hummable songs that let the pop souls fester almost in spite of the brittle avant-garde synthesizers that try to get all the attention. It's a battle every song, and on tracks like "New Kids on the Block" no side really wins: The 8-bit synth line wages a quiet war with Cooper's double-tracked cooing and the casual drumming before calling a white flag: The only thing winning by its conclusion is the listener.

But Haunts is a weird album and nothing is as it seems from a mere paragraph's worth of work. Witness the epic "Tattoos" for example: Five tracks in, we suddenly go from early Liars to Muse-in-three minutes. The contrasting vocal lines that allow the build-up to fade unnoticed is as attractive as anything I've heard from Matt Bellamy recently. Like, since 2001.

"I'm Needy" is more about the synths and the drums. A lot of these songs would feel at home in a DIY nu-rave party but since we pretend that wasn't real we'll just say Cooper and Hadouken! would probably get along if they ever met one another. Except for the part about the drinking: Cooper's still not yet of legal age over here. Pretty remarkable in and of itself. They're getting younger every year, I swear.

There's no doubt that some tracks on Haunts are throwaways or too simple and cute for their own good given the company they're in. While the title track is a great single waiting to happen and "Some Time" has some haunting imagery conjured up in its final 40 seconds, it's not a perfect album. "I Love You But I Don't" sounds good when you're not paying attention to it, its childlike piano lines playful but sadly out of place. "Heart" is a quaint little ballad but doesn't need the cheap pre-programmed drums to be beautiful. The last third of this album does quieten down just a hair, and "You Could Swim" is the best way to end this album: You get your souped-up synths and frantic drumbeats early in the song before an ambient chant Gregory the Great would've been proud of ends the album on a decidedly downtempo note. It's not what you're expecting at the outset of "Brand New Shoes," but Haunts will stick with you if you're into endearing synthpop brocken by witches out for blood and succeeding half the time.













Juho Kahilainen - Sleeping With the Lizards (Bpitch Control 2007)

Juho Kahilainen - Sleeping With the Lizards 12" / Bpitch Control

And while Tucson thrives on the energy of a surprisingly large artistic scene that has also helped birth Calexico, 515,000 people give or take does not leave a huge pool to take from. Berlin wouldn't know anything about that: Given that their 3.4 million people in the city limits alone makes it the EU's second most populous city behind only London, the opportunity for more and more diverse music is an obvious plus. One man who was quick to recognize the attraction was Finn Juho Kahilainen. In a country known for rallying and all things -nen, Kahilainen has at least kept faithful to the former. As for the whole music thing, his latest 12" presented here (and remixed on the b-side by My My) is a brilliant minimalist tech-house track that has shades of the playful nature Kahilainen exhibits in his mixes and his music.

"Stupid jokes and making a fool of myself is basically what I am," he says in his biography on the website. That sort of plays into the nature of his music, also demonstrated on a couple of earlier 12s and collaborations and remixes that (officially) reach back only to the turn of the century. The airtight beats of "Sleeping With the Lizards" featured here contrast nicely with the boom bipping of the sparse synthetics that rise and fall over the course of six minutes. No, it's not a full-length... But this single is pure dynamite and I'm not just saying that because it's on Bpitch and I'm a sucker for the Ellen Allien-run label. This pair of songs will get the kids moving from Berlin to Bangor and back again. It didn't take much to describe this single because you just have to hear it to love it... And hearing is half the battle. The loving comes easy.