#negative jazz

Playboy's "Celebration" 12inch EP is waist deep in something disturbed and decomposing.

Mastering Vanilla Poppers ‎”Lurking In The Corner Of Cleveland Ohio” Mastering Vanilla Poppers ‎"Lurking In The Corner Of Cleveland Ohio" on Negative Jazz Released 2016 "Debut ep from Australian/Ohio quartet Vanilla Poppers.

Patois Counselors’ debut 7″ on Negative Jazz dropped a little bit ago, and early impressions here are that it’s one of the year’s finest small platters thus far. The four tracks here are well-studied in the history of forefathers Wire and maybe Swell Maps at their tightest, drenched in synth reeking of fellow North Carolinians Whatever Brains, and yet the sum total is a fresh take on sharp-nosed post-punk. The label points you in the direction of “Free Jazz Complaint” for a first taste, the bouncy bassline and synth squelches driving the track all over the road, slowly ratcheting up the claustrophobia until it’s a smoking mess in the ravine. The A-side’s got the propulsive “Clean Skits,” above, and “Guidelines For Schooling,” a straight-faced and bouncy march that erupts in a squealing synth at the end to keep it out of the starched collars’ reach. I imagine there’s a lot of comparisons to the Fall for these Counselors, what with a vocalist who sounds like Protomartyr’s Joe Casey who sounds like Mark E. Smith (in a way, I guess), but there’s a sharpness and vitality to the 12-plus minutes crammed onto this 7″ that the modern iteration of the Fall could only aspire to these days. Hard to go wrong when all the right buttons are pressed. Red-hot record and the most economically sound purchase you could make at this very moment: $6 for 12 minutes on the razor’s edge at Negative Jazz. The whole thing can be streamed/digitally bought on the band’s Bandcamp.

6-18-14: LUMPY & THE DUMPERS - DEMO 7"