A Blanket That's Novelty Size

Secret Mommy - Kool Aid River.

Canada is just full of surprises, eh? I had never heard of Ache records before this disc slid across my desk. Now I see that they've released DFA1979, Hella and Four Tet. So that makes sense. They've also put out a few Secret Mommy releases, which now I'm going to have to track down.

This album, Plays, is nothing short of amazing. Kool Aid River gives you a nice taste of what to expect. The title track is also spectacular, with sampled clarinet and early Mercury Rev "wooooohs." Actually, now that I think about it, this album does kind of remind me of BOCES. So there's that. Much more subdued though. Same sense of controlled chaos though. Our boy here screams like teenage emo heart throb, and somehow it comes off sounding awesome instead of contrived.

Secret Mommy works in the same territory as Matmos, mining samples from acoustic objects. He stresses that nothing electronic was played on the album at all, which is novel. The result is absolutely amazing. I don't know what he used to get the bass tones, but they're downright nasty. The chopped-up acoustic guitar is a nice treble-heavy backdrop for his low-bitrate vocal samples.

The album will be out in February. In the meantime, you can pick up his older stuff through the Ache store. I'll recommend the Wisdom EP - recorded using only the sounds of his wisdom teeth removal. Highly recommended.

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Also:

If anyone knows of any decent apartment openings in Los Angeles (preferably los feliz, silverlake, atwater, etc) for one or two people, please let me know. I need something ASAP.