Fox Food Records continue to search out the good stuff and release it on cassette for us lucky listeners (such as this, this and this). This time they have put out a split album from Henry Demos and Lewtrakimou, which are recording projects of Mark Lentz and Lauren E. Walker respectively. Now those names may not mean all the much to you, but they are both members of the South Korea-based dream pop band Nice Legs.
Side A belongs to Henry Demos who provides a collection of jangly, lo-fi slightly psychedelic, rock songs. Opener ‘Electric Duck’ sort of sounds like Kurt Vile playing melodic jangle pop, while ‘God Dies Alone’ is reminiscent of the experimental rock of Broken Social Scene. ‘Tonight Was Dumb’ uses acoustic guitar and half-mumbled vocals to create something gently claustrophobic and ‘Worried’ is a fuzzy lo-fi rock and roll song. ‘So Slow’ is another standout, juxtaposing perky instrumentation with vocals that sound like ghostly moans.
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Lewtrakimou’s side B feels far more experimental. It sounds like she has gone foraging in cassette bargain bins and filled her wicker basket with fragments of lo-fi pop songs, few exceeding the 1 minute mark. Each track is so short and sweet (and strange) that it can be initially a little disorientating, repeated listens are required to feel the full effect. The first two tracks are the exceptions to the succinct track length trend: ‘Oh It’s Amazing’, with its minimal guitar chug and sweet, floaty vocals , and ‘Cyclops Fall’, with it’s cryptic lyrics and strange whimsical atmosphere – it sort of feels like a bad dream in a demented toy box.
This whimsy is a thread which runs throughout the album, with tracks such as ‘Sad as Buckets’, ‘For Onis’ and the title track utilizing elements such as glockenspiel and cheerful whistling, all backed-up by Walker’s pixieish vocals. ‘How Marvelous’ sounds like a sleepy incantation and ‘Man Tie a Sucker Down’ like a candy-sweet pop song playing on a stereo next door. We also get ‘Duty Free Boy’, a pretty instrumental guitar track and ‘Holy Toledo’, a glimpse of a bouncy pop song that sounds weirdly elastic, like in a dream in which your ears don’t work just right.
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If all that sounds kinda weird then that’s because it is. But it is also thoroughly original and enjoyable, and a worthy addition to the Fox Food repertoire. Get the album now on cassette tape or pay-what-you-want download via the Fox Food Records Bandcamp page.