Sunday, May 6, 2012

Music: Leslie Keffer "Finally, Caves" 12" single

So this is very much a dance single meant for deejays, more than for your average basement-dwelling, holyier-than-thou, cassette-fetishist noise-head, but ironically, it's probably the noise-heads that funded this record.

I, like hopefully most of you, feel extremely ambivalently toward Kickstarter. For every Leslie Keffer, there's a whole bunch of Natalie Prasses begging you to hire a studio, hire musicians, pay for the bullshit that doesn't matter when fact is, high-quality recordings can be made for nothing, plus the cost of a laptop, audio-interface and a couple microphones... all items your average Natalie Prass probably already owns.

So why did MTVE-Nashville support Leslie's campaign? (Aside from the fact that we think her music is not bullshit...)

Simply, this music was made for wax, a tangible, spinnable disc that deejays use. It makes, breaks, mends and bends the party. This is social music. Sure, both sides have been floating around Soundcloud for a while, but the internet-music experience is far different from its physical counterpart. This music is for sweating to, dancing and making out and fucking, and it goes without saying that fucking in 192 kbps is just not as good. We need the needle raw in the groove.

Furthermore, this Kickstarter campaign pretty purely embodies the D.I.Y. spirit of Noise music, (which this very much is not, but in a past life would have been.) "Donations" paid for the pressing and materials. Once those things were secured it was LK, herself recording at home (with Hobbledeions' Scott Martin,) pasting on art-work and addressing packages. This is not only a limited-quantity object, but an object that has real human hands all over it.

But nevermind the logistics... how is the music?

Relatively simple and very pretty. A secure synth chord, overwhich the low radio-strains bend consonatly a la "Loveless" guitars. Then the beat drops, a simple boom-chick elecro that nestles against the high synth in a very natural-sounding ecstasy. Pieces drop out to make way for a little modem-bleep-hook, come back in, repeat, etc. All very tantalizing, like neck-hairs pricking up tantalizing. Supple and basically very sexy.

Side 2, "Luna Loblolly" opens with monk-chant vocal samples that quickly fall in line behind a "Liquid Sky" drum machine. From there it's pure minimal bliss as the samples repeat and new textures emerge. Drop all for a whirling synth drone, modulating and recombining until a new beat enters and the party pulses on. Flinging sweat and fingers unto dawn.

Beginning with "Give it Up", the 12" single format is a really good look on LK. This one's definitely worthy of repeated spins from any deejay not puking out endless Garage Rock around Nashville, (though we suspect a lot of Europeans might catch on more quickly.) Recomended!

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