Outsideleft Week in Music with Anton Barbeau in OUTSIDELEFT

RECORD OF THE WEEK

ANTON BARBEAU - Power Pop!!! (Big Stir) favoritefavoritefavoritefavoritefavorite_border
by John Robinson

Following last year's Oh The Joys We Live For - an unexpected delight - read John Robinson's full review here...

Plus a slew of Omnivore reissues

SINGLES

ORANGEPURPLEBEACH - Pylon Shadow (Tiny Telephone) favoritefavoritefavoritefavoritefavorite_border
by Toon Traveller

Hmmm a electro drum intro, swirling, spaced-out, phased-in vocals, think of AM radio at the edge of it's range, half there, half not there, drifting, half-heard, but better than half good. This has an otherworldly feel, a sense of music from another time, an other place, from somewhere that feels like nowhere. Squeaks and harmony, this is not driving music, this is not music prepare breakfast to, it needs attention, it needs commitment. How good is this well despite the use of syndrum, (normally a no-no for me), are actually a real plus for the song. Pylon Shadow has more than enough intrigue to stand repeated listens, there's a lot going on here and light years away from most of the music I get to review. I love this slice of wideness, obscurity, and diversity. FOUR hearts for the sheer cross pollination of ideas, and styles.

MONDO COZMO - Electrify My Love (Republic Records) favoritefavoritefavorite_borderfavorite_borderfavorite_border
by Tim London

Here’s another rocknroll vicar leading us on a pointless, ecstatic chant for a wanky moment of joy. C’mon people, masturbate! In the pews! Masturbate! In the font! Masturbate! In front of the DJ booth! If James, Bono and Bobby had access to the best MDMA and made a record with a recording engineer more into, you know, proper rock.

MIDDEX - Palm is Alive in a Hand that Can Crush (Outreaches) favoritefavoritefavoritefavorite_borderfavorite_border
by Tim London

Back when the future was the future this would have sounded like the future. Now it sounds like a nostalgia for a time when it took half a day to connect a synth and drum machine to run in time together using arcane electronics and prayers. Which makes it… cute!

MITCH DAVIS - My City Life (Arbutus Records) favoritefavoritefavoritefavorite_borderfavorite_border
by Toon Traveller

Mitch Davis' slow sole late night vibe of a lone piano man telling his story, I love it. Straight outta that Jazz soul vibe that straddled the mid-80s, urbane, sophisticated, like a warm salad, and glass of Chardonnay. Which I do like too. Good to hear those echoes bouncing back, those memories of peace and contentedness, the understated organ soft and playful, the reprise of the songs theme, that sense of isolation in all the city but a sense of you've gotta make the best of where you are. Find the compensations, look for the pleasures. My City Life evokes lazy, sunny streaming in steamed windows, coffee and eggs over easy in a downtown, off main street, diner. The morning paper reading, second coffee sipping, anonymous faces passing, it's a lovely feel alright.

DANIEL VILLARREAL - Uncanny (International Anthem Recording Co) favoritefavoritefavoritefavorite_borderfavorite_border
by Tim London

Looking/dressing like Rick James’s distant cousin (from a distance) Dan makes a funky dubby mess and there’s nothing wrong with that.

SERATONES - Good Day (New West Records) favoritefavoritefavoritefavoritefavorite
by

Every now and again in a good way and song like Good Day comes along and it may be grey out there, on oh so many levels. But it's a Good Day, in here it's a Good Day. I love the mix of trad RnB beats, and backing vocals.A Gospel-y passage, that just blows the day's trials and tribulation into the distant ether, it moved me, it floored me, it grooved me. A fake ending and we're back in the good day, groove and Move, and get the good day feeling, happy, happy, happy all the way. Sunshine music all day.

EPs

TROPICAL FUCK STORM + KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD - Satanic Slumber Party (TFS) favoritefavoritefavoritefavoritefavorite
by Tim London

Ah, hahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!! That’s what I did when I watched the video and heard the song, carefully. If the B52s went on a really bad acid trip with Country Joe & The Fish and bumped into Joe Strummer out of his mind on speed and marijuana. Fucking love it - and hate it. Fucking hippy punks.

LPs

Other Materials

ROSALÍA - Hentai (sony) ?????
by Tim London

Instead of hearts can I use ‘?’ If so… ?????

You know ‘foreign’? The totally unfamiliar… ‘in the first place is fucking you/in the second place is God’. Sung into a microphone positioned, apparently, almost in a nostril, in Spanish, accompanied by a piano playing romantic hotel foyer chords and ‘visualised’ by a barely dressed young woman positioning herself for various types of sex (think Madonna, live, on her big bed, by herself, but not as funny) in a rodeo. Now, that, Nigel, is foreign. Named after the Japanese word for porn.