Von Sleight are Brian Younker and Sean Sleight and,as far as I can make out from the sketchy online info, not as German as they'd probably like to be.
Though based in Seattle, you get no prizes for guessing that they draw their chief inspiration from the likes of Neu! Kraftwerk and Cluster.
And this is by no means an updating of the Krautrock sound. since the duo deliberately forsake digital advances in favour of analog instrumentation.
Younker plays bass and trumpet but also a Korg MS-20, a portable analog synthesizer that ceased production in 1983 (although is still to be heard through artists like Aphex Twin Biosphere, Jean-Michel Jarre and Portishead).
Sleight deploys a Korg's pocket-sized Kaossilator alongside percussion,MIDI instruments and what are vaguely referred to as "natural recordings".
This is their fifth album and the tenth release overall on their own label, a fact marked by hitting the streets on the auspicious date of 10/10/10
The pair's choice of weaponry is designed to give them a dated, and fairly clunky sound and,if nothing else, you have to concede that this mission is accomplished. Alongside the teutonic slant, the bass -heavy loops makes the influence with dub obvious - most evident in Patchouli Mob Uprising and Bipolar Dub (dontcha just love those titles? - another track is called Emergent Pneimatic Retinopexy). In addition, Cutahoga Falls takes its cues from Joy Division's She's Lost Control.
|
The title track is the only one to feature voice - no singing but just a distorted spoken word monologue (something about sandwiches) with a dreamy Can quality combined with the motorik beat. You would hope that it includes some kind of apology for the awful cover 'art' which features a photo of a jar of nondescript spread.
Apart from the plodding Fodderstompf-like closing track (Sciatica) which is dragged out to a tedious thirteen minutes the tunes are wisely kept short. You get the impression they could have gone on for longer but they work much better in this abbreviated form, fading out just as you're started to get a bit bored.
The duo wear their influences on their sleeve and
have made an unpretentious homage to their musical heroes. It is not a great work by any stretch of the imagination but for nostalgia value alone is not without its charms.
Von Sleight website
|
