Puttering About A Small Land (Up)
by Lex Marburger
So, I guess I gotta rescind my missive on this electronica bullshite. OK – okokokokokokok – it’s not all the same damn thing. Fuk, a goat could hear the difference ‘tween Land of the Loops and damn near anything. ‘Course, the repetition thing can get outta hand with him: He sometimes uses samples so doggedly even Steven Reich would call him redundant. But he’s got a playful mind and a mid-tempo sensibility, so I can’t fault him too hard. For some strange reason, I keep thinking of Japan when I listen to Puttering About A Small Land, even though the kid’s from MA. I dunno, there’s something small, delicate & precise about it that I…
Just then, a dozen PC commandos burst through the door, scaring the hell out of my attack goldfish, who subsequently hide behind the glitter castle I bought for them just last week after they’d held off the hordes of lipstick lesbians who were offended when I called Anne Hesche “hot” in an email to a friend. Bloody battle, I can tell you… Anyhoo, these thugs throw me up against the wall and say I can’t make random cultural associations, even if they are a positive association in my head. So I guess Puttering… doesn’t really have a Japanese feel, even if it does sound like Shonen Knife meets Pizzicato Five in a DJ booth. OK, you guys satisfied?
So, when all is said and done, what we got here is a kid sitting in his folks’ basement, tooling about with samplers & sequencers, creating soundtrack music for Pez and Valium. I kinda dig the skipped record intros & outros, and I’m all over the loose, catch-as-catch-can style of beats, melodies (as such) and rhythms. I wonder what it’d be like to fuck to this music while hitting off a nitrous tank. Prolly like seeing Stereolab do an entire set as improv while getting a hummer from yer third grade math teacher as yer watching an educational movie about the life of an atom.
Or something.
(519 E. Pine St. Seattle, WA 98122)