 JONGLER by Nunchuck Gun |
>>Hip hop can be pretty great when it doesn’t take itself seriously. Case in point: South Portland bedroom hip hop act NUNCHUCK GUN, whose recently released album JONGLER is stuffed with the kind of catchy, puerile nonsense that’s bound to get someone in trouble. We’ve heard a similar sound before in the early days of Anticon: trippy, effects-drenched hooks paired with a nasal, flimsily-arrogant vocal delivery. It’s raw (and short), but he’s done his homework, the Amen break is buried in the swampy morass of “The Many-Headed Creature of the River Valley Speaks” and the opener “Revenge of Jenkem Polistirex Dip” is worth all 100 seconds. He seems to be spitting out an EP every month over at nunchuckgun.bandcamp.com.
>>Swirling out from under the smoky underbelly of downtempo is S/H/A/R/R/P/S effort MINED from Lewiston’s letterfounder studio. (Does everyone need to capitalize album titles these days?) At times plodding and a little loop-heavy, the album shines in miraculous moments of psychedelic weirdness in “the illuminated shade” and the Charlie-Brown-meets-Negativland ambience of “michael ezra.” “Am I talking to myself?” asks one of the samples, ad absurdum (a question we writers of Wax Tablet have often pondered) before dropping out into a comfortable minimal-house groove. Though technically not released until 2036, some fluke of the space-time continuum has allowed us to download MINED at letterfounder.bandcamp.com.
>>It’s sad if you missed the spirit of Regina Spektor possess COLLEEN CLARK at the old Big Easy (RIP) in months past. Don’t screw up again. She’s performing with (against?) the lovely and powerful Kristina Kentigian at the Aretha Franklin vs. Etta James Clash on August 13. Which is far away, we know, but it’s summer, and if we don’t make plans now, we’ll wake up in October with a gas bill and a vitamin D deficiency. Oh, and if you want to do the math: Kentigian = Aretha Franklin, and Clark = Etta James. More info at portlandempire.com.
