OPM: The Freaks Are Alright

The Beating Birch – Kora Had a Plan

Forward-looking art/post rock album with strong songs and an incredible grasp of atmosphere and dynamics. That potent mix makes for some gripping listening and showcases a delightful set of influences that have been synthesized into something new. 

The core fuses the experimental but song-based approach of the best post millennial art rock with the almost symphonic approach of post rock, adding notes of IDM, post punk, and even weirder stuff. The results are arresting – powerful, unusual songs that constantly take surprising twists and turns with good results. Recommended. 

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Unelectable – Zeroes and Ones

An echoing cavern of dark folk-industrial full of clattering percussion, noise, and weird sound shapes. The liner notes posit it as the music made by descendants of the crew of a wrecked starship, using the decaying ship to make music, and yeah, that fits the vibe! There’s an underlying heaviness to all of this – a giant, inorganic crunch and shudder. 

That inhuman base is layered with flitting shreds of melody and harmony, heavily distorted voices, layers of soft noise, and the occasional pretty sound to mix things up. It comes together into an intriguing and engaging collection of heavy, dark, and unusual industrial that is deeply human despite its alien timbres.

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Hello Midlands – “Wendy”

Melancholic singer-songwriter ballad that fits nicely within the British alt-pop tradition. That is to say it fits nicely along everything from the Kinks, Bowie, and the Jam to your favorite Britpop acts and beyond. Heck, you could throw a Beatles or Stones song on that mixtape and it would all fit nicely. A heartfelt and distinctive vocal, some nicely strummed guitars, a bit of organ and one bigass choir for a bit make up the arrangement, and it’s a nice fit for the song.

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Danger Lift Machine – Maybe There’s a Goose in the Machine

Fascinating exercise in experimental electro minimalism and sample mangling. Comprising nine short tracks (all clocking in around the two minute mark or under, apart from closer “Hey”), all but one are made entirely of treatments of a single snippet of audio. 

As a producer who’s worked with that constraint myself, I can say there are some clever things going on here in terms of the sound design and sample mangling. And if you don’t give a fuck about that? Well, it’s still some extremely engaging and weird electronic music with a unique sound. 

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D3la.HOZ – Trips (Pre-Album Singles)

Freaky, fantastic, and utterly deranged hybrid of mutant funk, alien R&B, and wild jam-band grooves. Fractured, stumbling, and barely hanging on rhythms join with looping, meandering guitar and synth lines that take you to unexpected places. Mangled vocals and spoken word elements fill in the cracks, and there’s always a surprise to be found. 

Hell, how often do you find a hybrid of jam-band funk and funky deep house? Not often, and yet it was right there, waiting to be Venn diagrammed by an artist like D3la.HOZ. And now he has. Can’t say whether you’ll like this one, but will definitely say you should give it a spin to decide for yourself. 

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The grotesque machinery of capitalism continues to grind me down, as it does us all. You can help me escape the shackles of making money for The Man (and ensure I continue to have the time and energy to write these reviews) by throwing me a dollar or three via my monthly Ko-Fi fundraiser…