The term "melting pot" has been used to describe the United States of America's citizens since the country's inception, so it comes as no surprise that those citizens should produce art that's equally "stew-like."
David Adamson
(aka
Grampall Jookabox
), not content with the usual
lo-fi
,
art-folk
templates of 21st century home recording, has unleashed a truly genre-defying beast with
Ropechain
, the Indiana native's first full-length for the
Asthmatic Kitty
label.
Adamson
's heady blend of
Odelay
-era
Beck
Roky Erickson
paranoia, cosmic
hip-hop
, and general
Animal Collective
weirdness sounds like a train wreck in print, but his knack for odd melodies, stealthy programming, timely pitch-shifting, and macabre (and occasionally hysterical) subject matter helps to keep things consistently interesting throughout
's easily digestible 45-minute runtime. Highlights like
"Black Girls,"
"Ghost,"
"We Know We Might Be Fucked,"
and
"I Will Save Young Michael"
-- the young Michael in question is indeed a
Jackson
-- conjure up the image of a reclusive parapsychologist pawing at the walls for a light switch in the basement and coming up empty every time. It's both harrowing and funny, and it's a notion that a lot of long-winded, self-serving, home recording
indie
artists would do well to emulate. ~ James Christopher Monger