Album Reviews: Chalk, Kim Gordon, Ora Cogan

Chalk – Crystalpunk
Belfast, Northern Ireland

Truly like a band birthed from the gangs of Jet Set Radio Future, Chalk merge punk, hardcore, dance and producer pop influences to create something that moves between Nine Inch Nails, Fever Ray, touches of late-era Charli XCX, and a whole range of more noise and ambient texture work that is harder to pin down. All coming together for a record that shifts genres a few times over! One of the most intriguing albums in a while, you’ll start in a world of powerfully produced punk, and end in a dance haze dripping with acid-burnt textures. Mounting like a noise statement piece, “Tongue” is slowly nudging the volume higher by the second, almost like hearing grinding metal in musical form build in intensity until it’s an explosion of sparks and percussion. They swap from straight noise-punk to something more dark-pop on “Pain,” bringing a horror-movie-esque anthem while layering in a lot of shocking production power and a soundscape for the ages. The bridge in the album’s worlds comes in the stomping yet direct melodies of “Longer,” as they burn out their whole sound in every booming chorus.  And while they offer a searing rush in their dance and more pop tracks in the album’s back half, nothing beats the abrasive, and irradiated sonic barrage of “Skem,” that feels like every great 90s dance track sent through your speakers at 11 on the volume, or 12 for that matter.

The Free Label – Chuckii’s Jam (Single)
Toronto

Though their brand of jazz-funk usually goes more laid-back, disco, and soul, the Free Label go full James Brown on their latest single. Blending a driving melange of grooves and frantic guitar work with vocal punches that would make the Godfather of Soul blush, the track is constantly a burning fire without any chance of slowing down. The flair of the synths and tones around the song mix in an 80s vibe with something reminiscent of the funkier jazz fusion acts of Japan’s city pop scene, like Masayoshi Takanaka and Casiopea. The whole thing just flies like a fun, spontaneous beast, one that you can easily see being expanded live into a ten-minute back-and-forth with the crowd.

Ora Cogan – Hard Hearted Woman
Salt Spring Island/Nanaimo, British Columbia

Bringing a goth attitude to the world of folky, desert psychedelia, Ora Cogan takes the kind of quirky, explorative energy of PJ Harvey into her handcrafted, shadowy world. A powerfully crafted record with enough mood to sustain an entire career, Cogan makes sure she’s firing on all cylinders right out of the gate on this one, assuring you get lost in her work until you run out of runtime on the record. There’s a cloudy feeling all over “Honey,” as the strings and strums dance around your mind’s eye, creating this glossy, yet smudged feel amongst the smooth bass. The sound moves into a desert-folk space as she expands the sense of place within the album on “The Smoke,” and leaves you dazed in a subtly psychedelic whirlpool of guitar and percussion. Given the rustic feeling of the record, the synths and vocal effects of “Division” feel haunting and menacing in their unnaturalness, giving the track a truly magical feel. There’s an even eerier feeling on “Bury Me,” as the whole arrangement becomes drenched in echoing, wet, and melting tones to make you feel like you’re slowly losing your mind.

Mette Lindberg – Take Me Home (Single)
Herlev, Denmark

There’s even more of an early MØ-esque DIY pop sound to “Take Me Home”, though it quickly deviates from her end-of-the-road, outside of a few guitar tones. There’s a romantic sultriness in this track, landing in a powerful grey area between simply being one or the other, giving it a kind of mystical emotional high as the two collide and hitting exponential ecstasy in the middle. With Danish producer legend Trentemøller providing a cool air to the track, it goes down smooth in its more magical choruses, and sinks back to the personal in every verse. And the glowing, honey-dripping guitar lines are a divine treat amidst the synths, sounding like old Asteroids member (and MØ guitarist) Mikkel Baltser Dørig, but being effortlessly layered in by Trentemøller himself. The sound is like neon fire in the midst of a cold landscape, feeling like the power of the love this song professes, shining a light in a dark place.

Kim Gordon – Play Me
Rochester, NY

Just when we thought we’d pinned down the new direction of Kim Gordon’s solo material, she dripped in a smoky air of surrealism to throw us off the scent. The evergreen queen of cool, Gordon sheds any sense of predictability while holding onto her personality and punk with a white-knuckle grip that lets this icon of experimental music (in the most literal sense) shed another sense of limits to her sound! “Play Me” immediately transports you to a time of a 90s trip-hop noir record that never was, giving an instantly iconic sound despite this never being the angle Gordon was working at the time. The dreaminess of “Not Today” is a surprisingly bright jaunt on the record, bringing an almost The Drums-esque shine to it, while Gordon seems to slowly disintegrate in her bliss. With Dave Grohl providing a frantic, experimental, but all the more aggro and primal beat on “Busy Bee,” Gordon is able to morph, speak and wail out, creating something of our world and a few worlds we’re scared to visit. Yanking you through a cloud of anxiety-inducing sounds and cataclysmic drums, “Byebye25!” is a performance art piece melting your brain through all the buzz words spouted by demagogues in the last year, and all the dangers faced by those without power in the last year.

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