Chemistry gone bad
Oh man. Menomena put out one of my top three records of last year, so just the idea of new material made me a giddy as schoolgirl. I special ordered the 7”, raced home to play it and pfzzzt.
It dissapoints like a dud firework.
Since I am airing out the Menomena subject let me touch upon Lackthereof which is the drummer from Menomena’s solo project. Danny Seim offers up his friggin’ 7th long player. No shocker, “Christian the Christian” is very drum heavy, contains lots of sounds drenched in reverb, is garnished nicely with kooky keyboard blips, bleeps, and loops but it still sounds like a basement recording.
When I say basement I don’t mean the actual audio technique suffers (though I think his home studio is in fact in his basement), the songs are very much what many a side project of great bands sound like. The talent is there but this material reflects a rough draft of something bigger and better; like notebook sketches verse a finished painting. These outlines have their own charm and worth but I don’t know how many times I will find myself throwing it back in my cd player.
Did I mention Danny raps? Yeah, there is some of that too.
My favorite songs : “Half of Drugz”(closest track to Menomena), Mission with Christian”(super fuzz electro drone with lots of snare) which rolls into “Safely in Jail” nicely (pong video game bleeps with low rider beats) and “Take Him Away”(signature Menomena big beats which take on a Chemical Brother’s demo vibe)
The 1st edition limited packaging of Lackthereof is stellar, the lyrical themes show definite attention to detail, and as truly prolific side projects go this one will please Menomena fans a million times more than the “Posh Isolation” single.
