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Oodipoomn CD (Pickled Egg Records, Egg 74CD) "Pursuing their offbeat, off-kilter and occasionally off-the-wall mashup of lo-fidelity experimental pop music and uptempo kosmik grooves at the fringes of undergound and overground success, NOW continue to demonstrate the tireless heart of their being is something close to an unsung national treasure. Just like NOW's ever-changing live shows, the gumbo of influences and references which permeate 'Ooodipooomn' suffuse it with an almost naïve joy in its own existence. Adventurous and elliptical more than merely eccentric, 'Ooodipooomn' revolves around the core NOW trio and a parade of guests, buzzing vibrantly through sensational moments where shuddering analogue synth boogie morphs into avant skronk'n'roll before throttling back into hypnotic cello, somnolent beat loops and droning surrender. The six minute trance-inducing motorway chug of 'Hiway Code' seems more like a whole roadtrip thanks to its the sheer busyness, while the spacious sprawl of “Yellow Tent T-shirt” and the brazen churn of 'Ethnik Snack' both coalesce into wildly divergent epics, remoulding the model of jam-band ethnopsychedelia along the way" [Richard Fontenoy, Plan B] Listen to Oodipoomn on Last.fm |
UK: £10.00
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Frisbee Hot Pot CD (Pickled Egg Records, Egg 62CD) Now have released numerous home-made CDR recordings, and have contributed tracks to several compilation albums, including Pickled Egg's 2005 sampler, 'Jar'. 'Frisbee Hot Pot' is their debut "proper" album. "My soul, my ears and my dancing shoes thank Now, who haven’t so much as made an album as created an antidote for musical apathy. This is a band that have played with Damo Suzuki and pulled it off. Yep, that good. And Frisbee Hot Pot is one of those albums that, if art-pop is a term coming back into fashion, would be somewhere between Pollock and Kandinsky – free-flowing yet structured, vivid yet soothing, bold yet with numerous untold hidden depths. Musically it’s all over the shop, of course, yet manages to steer clear of sounding like a mere mesh of disparate influences badly thrust together – seemingly because they not only have a great understanding of the rhythmical heart in everything (all music is dance music, etc), but can apply it to their own restless, driving sound. And as the whole album winds itself slowly to a halt, you know it is a journey colourful, perplexing and astounding enough to warrant many return trips. Inspired and inspiring" [Drowned in Sound] "Did you ever wish Stereolab would just stop with the wussy leopard-skin lounge exotica and get thoroughly stuck into the krauty riffage? If so, you probably have to hear Frisbee Hot Pot. There are grooves on here so deep that bathospheres have been lost exploring them, so repetitive that they're being considered as a cure for autism. This is no macho endurance test though: just listen to 'Little Bits Inside of You' and its cheeky Human League synth-funk and snooty girl-sneer. Opening track, 'Abominatrx,' is an eleven-minute journey from inept jerk-pop through a squelchy Brazilian robo-party, ending up in some kind of trombone comedy march. Elsewhere there are withered trumpets, fey breathings and heavy, heavy drum breaks. Ritalin pop, perhaps?" [Plan B] "On their latest album, the seven-piece band Now are joined by a whole army of percussionist whose combined skills fill out the sound of the songs completely, no more so than on the opening track "Abominatrix" which build from pop song to street carnival in a delicious manner and will definitely get you feet moving. Elsewhere there is a Talking Heads/Eno groove to the songs with the bass-lines becoming central to the song, with the musicians playing tightly together, creating tension, whilst retaining a loose feel, (a good trick if you can do it). Throughout the band are not afraid to experiment with different rhthyms, the vocals telling stories, and the well-rehearsed grooves allowing the other instruments plenty of room to improvise, bringing to mind bands such as Rollerball, Caravan, and The Comsat Angels, although these are mere echoes to be found in a collection of original and high quality songs" [Ptolemaic Terrascope] "Sleigh bells shickle like Mr T. in full tilt, and from there, through recorders, cyclical harmonies and synth hum, a locked-in, sweet and tender little groove develops, growing like ivy, capturing all sorts of other instruments and patterns as it spreads in all directions. Not a bad opener, then, and it is one of two 10 minute tracks that fully showcase their artistry and spin. All the other tracks are snippets by comparison, but equally visionary, e.g. ‘Excited Lobo Crown’ has a desert funk twinkle; ‘The In-Case’ clatters like a chainsaw through a back-alley bin; ‘Calanized’ clings onto a spy-drama wubble’; and ‘Pachinko’ is a juddery slink firing off an Atari electro-trickle. This record has free-jazz spirit, elements of twee, a post-rock stubbornness while it often swims with African guitars. A floating, gliding LP that is, nonetheless, perverse in outlook; soaring, dipping and jolting regularly" [The Vanity Project] 'The In-Case' (MP3) 'Ra' (MP3) Download Frisbee Hot Pot Listen to Frisbee Hot Pot on Last.fm |
UK: £10.00
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