INK JET "Cold Shoulder" C27 (Gohan Tapes)




Blake Schwarzenbach did earnestly claim, in his trademark anti-croon, “all I want is a life without parties…” and I did swoon.

Despite this, I am enjoying Ink Jet’s Could Shoulder. This, despite the misnomer. There is nary an ounce of under-heated mutton within 1983730983 miles of this album. The grooves upon grooves upon grooves of funk & cultish call-and-response themes do nothing but pull even the most advanced anti-IDM soul into its most blackest hole, where all bad moods/’tudes go to a death-by-trampling.

Maybe it’s the perfect bass tone. Maybe it’s the shimmering synth washes weaving in and out of other idiosyncratic flutish melodies. Maybe it’s the fact that the metronomic 4/4 beat isn’t blaring, but at a respectable mid-level (though, begrudgingly, I still wish it were so, so, so, so, so much lower) throughout. Maybe I’m making my peace with Saturday night. Who the hell knows.

One thing’s for sure; if you don’t think techno is a dirty word, give this thoughtful neck-wiggler a concerted listen, with and without headphones.

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-- Jacob An Kittenplan