The Songs We Can't Escape

A A A Comments By Ray Cummings Wednesday, Oct 8 2008

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"Trick Boots"

Okay, I'm sold: I believe that the protagonist really believes that by harnessing heretofore untapped mental powers, he was really able to make his boots vanish. LSD tabs and Pissed Jeans singles go well together, it seems.

courtesy of the artist

Khate

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KHATE
"Syrup"

This track, posted by the Virginia-based circuit-bender on her website recently, reminds me of Tri Repetae-era Autechre: grimy, grubby electronics spitting, bleeping, waffling, and rattling from within the inkiest of digital shadows. Just when you think that's all that's happening, she uncages some nature-based samples, brightening the mood briefly before going all muted distorto-beatbox on us.

LAKE
"Blue Ocean Blue"

What trips me out about this song is that it's only a couple of ProTools tweaks (and maybe a way-less dinky singer) away from being passable R&B. On K Records, yet!

NATASHA BEDINGFIELD
"Angel"

There's just something so pleasantly participatory about songs that involve spelling, you know? Think of the Ramones' "Slug," Fergie's "Glamorous," the Village People's "YMCA," Beach House's "D.A.R.L.I.N.G.," RZA's "B.O.B.B.Y."—following along with each letter draws you in, doesn't it, and you feel compelled to make sure no mistakes were made and all. Anyway, nice enough white R&B lighter-lifter, but how come pop stars always want to be angels? Why not archangels, which I'm pretty sure are on a more privileged angelic tier of authority? Whatever happened to aiming higher?

VXPXC
"Cy's Last Ride #1"

Sorta like waking up slowly on a gray morning when there's nothing much on the agenda and no one around, so you're puttering 'round the house, fondling the remote but not turning on the TV, staring into the fridge without fixing anything to eat, etc. If these Cali dreamers were rich, famous, and way more compositionally inclined—and if it were 1993—a song-sketch like this one might show up on a CD5 or a comp, but never on an album proper.

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