CD Reviews

Chris Weisman | Maya Properties

OSR Tapes (2012)

By LIZ PELLY | December 4, 2012

3.0 Stars

Chris Weisman is surprisingly focused for someone so intrinsically weird. For proof, see his most recent output via Brattleboro's OSR Tapes: an 88-track album released via YouTube. For years, Weisman has beamed over beautifully minimal tunes from his tiny community of psychedelic songwriters and tripped-out folkies. Here, in 11 video segments, Weisman floats between moments of minimal psych-folk croons over finger-picked guitar, and more experimental oddities. Part 1 is all warm melodies, including an ode to his favorite musical note ("high e") and a defense of tradition ("don't blame music theory"), whereas Part 2 is essentially eight tracks of synthesizer soliloquies. By Part 3, Weisman returns to reveal his knack for making complex guitar work and involved self-harmonizing sound super simple. The entire collection reveals a startling, prolific avant-garde songwriter; it's simultaneously strange and beautiful that he's stayed off the grid so long.

Related: Cat's Eyes | Cat's Eyes, Little Dragon | Ritual Union, Ash Borer | Ash Borer, More

Cat's Eyes | Cat's Eyes
It is a generally agreed upon truth that the best pop music occupies the small Venn-diagram overlap between the sacred and the profane, the itty bitty piece of real estate where our secret subconscious gets confused between which feelings belong to the Lord and those that reside Below.
Little Dragon | Ritual Union
On Ritual Union, the third full-length from these mechanical soul weirdos, Little Dragon have managed to get way catchier and also a great deal stranger.
Ash Borer | Ash Borer
NorCal black-metal trio Ash Borer's debut full-length is as diminutive as their namesake (limited to a 150-cassette run) but no less destructive or striking as they hurtle through three tracks in 40 minutes.
Sun Araw | Ancient Romans
The hypnotic fifth LP by Sun Araw — the five-year-old solo project of Angelino Cameron Stallones — is a double-vinyl spiral through deep zones of neo-primitive psych-drone noise.
Active Child | You Are All I See
Pat Grossi used to be a choirboy, which is not surprising at all, given that his full-length debut under the Active Child moniker sounds like it was cut in some sort of dimly lit, hallowed hall under the cover of night.
Paul Lieberman's Brazilian accent
How did a middle-class Jewish kid from New Jersey become a first-call session musician in Rio de Janeiro?
The Big Hurt: Pablo Dylan's 10 Minutes
Bob Dylan's 16-year-old grandson, Pablo Dylan, just dropped 10 Minutes , his first rap mixtape.
The Big Pink | Future This
The Big Pink's name is forgettable and their sound is too generic to describe. Sneering electronic dance-rock heavy on synths and slowed-down '90s rave beats? They might as well be the Klaxons.
Alex Chilton | Free Again: The ''1970'' Sessions
Post–Box Tops and pre-Big Star, Alex Chilton was an 18-year-old Memphis boy on his way to his dual identity: former #1 pop hitmaker, perpetual underground hero.
Cardinal | Hymns
After a nearly two-decade silence, chamber-pop duo Cardinal emerge from their near-mythic hibernation with the sleepy-eyed, Beatles-underwater gem "Northern Soul," which crawls out of the speakers as if to say, "Yeah, we've been gone since 1994 — but really, don't mind us!"
Snow Patrol | Fallen Empires
Word on the street had Snow Patrol looking to change up the big anthem sound for their sixth release.
Less

Topics: CD Reviews , review, album

| More

Most Popular

The Current Issue

Table of Contents

Cover Archive

Masthead | Authors | Contact us

Blogs

Where To Follow Me
Talking Politics | March 24, 2013 at 11:09 AM

Mo Takes His Turn
March 21, 2013 at 12:59 PM

[Q&A] KMFDM's Sascha Konietzko on art, Columbine and having balls
On The Download | March 18, 2013 at 3:22 PM

See this film series: The Belmont World Film Series @ Studio Cinema in Belmont
Outside The Frame | March 18, 2013 at 11:00 AM

See this film: This is Spinal Tap [with post-film talk by expert from Acoustical Society of America] @ the Coolidge
March 17, 2013 at 12:00 PM

ARTICLES BY LIZ PELLY

COLLECTIVE THINKING @ BLANC GALLERY | March 06, 2013
In 2010, a group of 20-something art and music enthusiasts transformed an unassuming basement space on Vancouver Street into YES.OUI.SI., a multi-media gallery and gathering spot for young talents that hosted dozens of visual-art shows, film screenings, literary readings, and experimental music performances.

PRIMORDIAL SOUNDS’ LABEL-READY LEARNING CURVE | February 20, 2013
Noah Bond's Allston apartment looks like an antique shop.

BEACH FOSSILS | CLASH THE TRUTH | February 20, 2013
Last year in an interview with the Phoenix , Dustin Payseur of Beach Fossils said his sophomore album would be inspired by "a lot of frustration from a lot of different sources."

ICEAGE | YOU'RE NOTHING | February 11, 2013
There's something intriguing about the ways Copenhagen punk band Iceage seem simultaneously to care so much and so little.

BEE-HAVIOR: ''FESTOONING THE INFLATABLE BEEHIVE'' AT BU'S 808 GALLERY | February 06, 2013
An art gallery may seem like an unconventional space for discussions on insect behavior, but Maria Molteni maintains beekeeping is as much an art as a science.