"Intro/I Should Be Sleeping"
Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sea Lions But Were Afraid To Ask
Slumberland (2011)
Andi Arroganti
"Scheintot"
Mono
Was Soll Das? Schallplatten (2003) (1981)
Summer Heart
"My Forever Smile"
Soundcloud download (2011)
Ela Orleans
"In The Night"
Beko 00 download (2011)
Bill Fay
"Screams In The Ears"
Deram 7” (1967)
Eric Matthews
"Flight and Lion"
It’s Heavy In Here
Sub-Pop (1995)
Total Control
"Sweaty"
Thee Oh Sees/Total Control Split EP
Castle Face (2011)
By now we are all comfortably accustomed to a Slumberland-curated introduction to the monthly Pisser mixes. One loses count of the perfect crystallizations of yesterday’s pop influences into the folds of the present, but Slumberland repeatedly guides us into this domain, and this time quite successfully with the Sea Lions. I can forgive the mouthful that is the album’s needlessly arch title quite easily, in other words.
Herr Arroganti played a provocateur’s role in the early ‘80s, and if you chase him down online (www.andiarroganti.com), you’ll see that his feelings about the digital domain bring him full circle. Roughly translated in context, he’s singing about a virtual state of death in a consumerist society, the death of the soul. Well… what can you do? Pop allows for ironic juxtapositions with its subject matter, and he’s nailed it with this arrangement.
A breezy interlude is always forthcoming, so here we have a pseudo-lovelorn song by Summer Heart. I see that some like to throw “synthwave” around as a genre, but let’s assuage the dilution into micro genres and recognize simple pop when it hits us.
Somewhere in the UK sit Ela Orleans, with a snapping finger on the pulse of yesteryears’ psychedelic pop. It made the Bill Fay selection that follows an easy fit, though Mr. Fay is obviously on a bad trip in his then present, whereas Ela Orleans are enjoying a more touristic ride. No harm in that, of course. What Fay’s rich and rewarding production sound foretells, however, is a minor backlash against the DIY pop approach, which Eric Matthews understood and then evolved into one of the best records of the ‘90s. True musicianship is still to be fostered.
And lastly, Australia’s Total Control hit us with a barely bridled bit of rock magic. I am still sore from the kicking of self that I’ve endured in recent weeks, having found out too late that Thee Oh Sees and Total Control were touring the country. Baltimore – why must you steal our concert thunder? Oh, because you’re not as culturally banal? Fair enough…