Dirty Projectors Swing Lo Magellan (2012)
Domino Records www.dirtyprojectors.net
Pretentious is a word that is thrown about alot around bands whose music doesn’t conform to easy to pin down preconceived ideas of genre. I approached this record not knowing much about Dirty Projectors, and I found plenty to like, it’s not all easy to listen to, but that can make the moments of sweet harmonies or guitar wigouts stand out all the more. There is a willingness to try things out, whether they work or not is up to the listener, pretty alt-country harmonies are underpinned by awkward back words sounding drums, and almost chaotic plucked guitar.
Highlights: ‘Offspring Are Blank’, ‘Swing Lo Magellan’, ‘Impregnable Question’.
The Flaming Lips ...And Heady Fwends (2012)
Bella Union www.flaminglips.com
The Flaming Lips have been experimenting with psychedelic alt-rock for almost 30 years now, and this collaboration record is no different with guests as diverse as Ke$ha, Bon Iver, Yoko Ono and Nick Cave. ‘2012 (You Must be Upgraded)’ kicks the album off with psychotic shrill dial-up tone white noise before the more sombre & beautiful ‘Helping The Retarded To Know God’. In places this is one of the Lips hardest rocking albums such as the Jim James collab ‘That Ain’t My Trip’, which is followed by the similarly gnarled ‘You, Man? Human???’ with Nick Cave. ‘I’m Working At NASA On Acid’ is a fairly anonymous Lips by numbers track until Lightning Bolt explodes all over it before it floating back off into space again, the band’s cover of ‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’ is something to behold, turning it into a strangely beautiful 10 minute space-dub epic. The Flaming Lips are still vital.
Highlights: ‘Helping The Retarded To Know God’, ‘That Ain’t My Trip’, ‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’, ‘Tasered And Maced’
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