The Trophy Fire - Modern Hearts - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

The three-way 'Los Angeles' collaboration was born out of a curiosity which just wouldn't die. Made up of two of the most illustrious and inventive drummers of the post-punk era, The Cure's Lol Tolhurst, and Budgie from Siouxsie & The Banshees and The Creatures, along with stellar producer and multi-instrumentalist Garret 'Jacknife' Lee, this unlikely alt-supergroup have spent the last four years spiriting up one of the most extraordinary albums to appear in 2023. Perusing the tracklist, with it's guest credits for, amongst others, LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy, Bobby Gillespie, Civil Rights avant-gardist Lonnie Holley, Starcrawler wildchild Arrow de Wilde and The Edge from U2, you may rightly wonder just what the 13-track long-player holds in store. The answer a hard-hitting and compulsively exploratory 55-minute electronic mindscrew, founded on unrivalled rhythmic expertise, fleshed out with an armory of synths, guitars (Jacknife's forte) and supplementary percussion, often overlaid with elite-class strings and brass, then universally twisted, manipulated and quite masterfully sculpted by Lee, with his super-producer's hat on.

On their Suicide Squeeze debut, this Baltimore duo (18-year old Anar Badalov and 19-year old Flora Wolpert-Checknoff), along with drummer/recording engineer Sam Leiber, drop a mope-addled dose of bedroom rock. Anar's baritone lends a low foundation to Flora's airy registers. Sonically meshing the angular bites of InchLong DriveInch-era Modest Mouse, the expansive bedroom drone of Arab Strap, and the subtle whispers of Cat Power. All through blend waves of layered finger picking, sparse drum loops, stringed accompaniments, and distinctive vocal melodies that weave in and out. Suicide Sqeeze. 2006.

The Trophy Fire - Directions for Daylight [COMPACT DISCS] date 05/21/2013