What's a Listening Log? Well, the idea is quite simple. It's a weekly segment that consolidates all the mini-reviews Dozens Of Donuts has given on RateYourMusic over the past week, split between the Past and Present. A straightforward grading scale has been put in place, ranging from A+ to F-, with C acting as the baseline average. There is no set amount of reviews per week, just however many I get around to reviewing. And don't expect week-of reviews. I wait one month - with at least three listens under my belt - before I rate and review an album. Enjoy!
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2020 | Psychedelic Pop | Listen
A TIME-TRAVELING HIPPIE INVOKING HER 70'S PROVENANCE
It's safe to ignore Alexandra Savior. She is, after all, but another lone female singer with a pretty face and pretty voice in Los Angeles' inundated melting pot. Nothing about her stands out, even if the quality of The Archer does its damnedest to prove dissenters wrong. An amalgamation of styles, Savior leans heavily on her myriad of hopeless romantic influences (see: Lana Del Rey, Weyes Blood, Julia Jacklin, etc). The Archer is at its best when Savior infiltrates California's arid seas of middle class anguish with tantalizing witchery that feels more appropriate in Salem, Massachusetts. On these efforts, namely 'Howl' and 'The Phantom,' Savior inches nearer to Mazy Fly's peculiarity; Spellling's debut album. When she's not overt with such wickedness - using grotesque riffs that abide by definite Halloween feels - Savior instead leans on the 70's psychedelic movement propagated in the Californian desert. In these cases she bears resemblance to Shana Cleveland and her group La Luz, best seen on 'Crying All The Time' for the former and 'Saving Grace' for the latter.
All this is to say that The Archer isn't overwhelmingly original. Rather, Savior's talents emerge in refinement. Perhaps the most interesting cut though is The Archer's definite standout; 'Send Her Back.' It packs the greatest punch, but only at the cost of two instantaneous comparisons; Avalanches' 'Frontier Psychiatrist' and RJD2's 'The Horror.' Those horns, they're nearly identical. But, as privy music fans know, The Avalanches and RJD2 don't deal in Singer/Songwriter Pop, but rather Plunderphonics. Bridging that not-so obvious gap is Savior's wisest move to date, and it pays dividends on an album that, by the median point, has little boldness to lean on.
C+
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2020 | Post-Rock | Listen
BROKEN COMMUNICATION BETWEEN FIRST AND THIRD WORLDS
Under the pseudonym Prizes Roses Rosa, the one man army hailing from Australian - known more familiarly as p.rosa - delves furthermore into the obtuse, the ancient, the colossal. Sitting at a whopping two and a half hours, The Kinspiral acts as an endless excursion into the unknown. The genre list spans far and wide - including, but not limited to, Post-Rock, Experimental Rock, Neo-Psychedelia, Sound Collage, Tribal Ambient, Shoegaze, Dub, Vaporwave, and Plunderphonics - all used to ingratiate listeners to p.rosa's brand of carnivorous exotica. With the lone human voice, often obscured behind overgrown thickets and intense fog, acting as the primary connection to modern society, The Kinspiral truly is an otherworldly endeavor. It's Soundtracks For The Blind, if Swans' goal was to bewilder rather than unsettle.
However, while atmospherically-rich, the elongated composition and enduring perpetuity of Kinspiral makes it difficult to revisit beyond a single panicked, but memorable stay. Like a vacation to a desolate island gone rogue upon reaching the moon's reflective glow. The bulk of p.rosa's epic feels drawn out beyond reasonable proportions. A song, let's say 'Weapon Of Kin' at four minutes or 'Richard Vander Wende' at five, exists for quadruple the length the Ambient musings call for. 'My Understanding Of This River' is another example, probably the most egregious, of a song that could've been cut drastically. Again, the monotonous percussive rhythms and entrancing soundbites supplement Kinspiral's oppressive atmosphere, but at a certain point enough is enough. Not to mention that, despite the myriad of sprawling influences - that include, most prominently, .O.rang's blend of Tribal and Post-Rock - The Kinspiral blurs into itself with minimal distinction or reason behind various samples dotted ardently across the LP, or the structuring that ebbs and flows with no regard for the track's general pacing. I hate to say it, and I’d hate even more for it ever to be executed, but this really feels like one, 148-minute song.
Thus far, this review is not short on negatives. But truth be told, they almost exclusively deal with the protracted length. Beyond that there are positives, falling mostly in the sound quality and the momentous occasions where p.rosa conjoins all his talents - like the Power Rangers' Megazord - for majestic set pieces that ascend to the stratosphere with marvelous force. The middle portion of 'Underneath Your Heavens, A Desert Leader Looks Over His Region' is one such example. So is 'People Who Flew Past,' which is likely The Kinspiral's most conventional song, featuring a jaunty elevator sample that wouldn't be out of place on a Vaporwave record. More often than not though, p.rosa rests in ambivalence, leading to numerous dead-end songs ('Kinspiral,' 'My Sister') that set hopes high only to never capitalize. Another highlight is the intricate connectivity p.rosa implements with his sampling, reusing certain pieces or effects in an effort to heighten the believability of his world. It works.
The Kinspiral is not without its moments. The disappointment comes in p.rosa's inability to suppress the excess and redundancies, of which there are plenty.
D+
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2020 | Indietronica | Listen
NATURE AND MAN BECOMING ONE, FORMING NEW DNA
Sigh. Suffice to say my expectations were through the roof with Mystic Familiar, Dan Deacon's first studio album in five years. One of the most exciting and dynamic artists of our generation, Deacon originally won me over with Bromst - an all-time classic - before solidifying his prowess as Electronic composer with the genius and inventive 'When I Was Done Dying.' His music is invigorating, captivating, and hysterically-stimulating. And don't be misconstrued, Mystic Familiar totes all these features in abundance. It is, after all, a stereotypical Deacon album rife with claustrophobic maximalism, euphoric bouts of extremism, and lyrics that ascend humanity past the clouds. But here, there's something missing. Or rather, a slight diversion has occurred that has garnered new fans while isolating previous ones. It all falls back on Deacon's interest in Modern Classical, something heightened recently with his Film Scores of Rat Film and Time Trial. Mystic Familiar is his most progressive in this sense, fully achieving the zen-like state he's always strove for. Tracks like 'Hypnagogic,' 'Arp III: Far From Shore' and 'Weeping Birch' are clear indicators, placing a greater emphasis on riveting orchestral arrangements and less on Deacon's knack for singular exhilaration. The former, reminiscent of the Progressive Electronic from Daniel Lopatin (Oneohtrix Point Never), the latter Colin Stetson and Nils Frahm's shimmering cascades of multi-instrumentation. What do all three have in common? Their recent infatuation with providing instrumental Soundtracks.
Mystic Familiar is at its best when Deacon returns to the ambitious, near-Progressive Pop sported on previous albums America and Gliss Riffer. 'Sat By A Tree,' the lead single and ultimate crowning jewel, would fit snugly beside 'Prettyboy' and 'Crazy Jam' on his 2012 album, whereas something like 'Fell Into The Ocean's' aquatic existentialism could've appeared on Gliss Riffer's atmospherically-rich second half. Not to mention 'Become A Mountain,' while donning the all-too versant robotic piano trickery, bears resemblance to another opening epic from a fellow Baltimore Progressive Pop group: Animal Collective and their majestic 'In The Flowers.' These three efforts are Mystic Familiar's best, and they're a marvel to witness unfold.
There are other comparative points found on Mystic Familiar that aren't too meritorious though. For starters, 'Bumble Bee Crown King' is yet another closing letdown as, structurally and tonally, the seven-minute endeavor essentially copies the mold laid down by Gliss Riffer's 'Steely Blues.' Each track features the same vibrant and tantalizing build - a true staple of Deacon's maximalism - but rather than explode into pure ecstasy, then dwindle to nothingness with no palpable payoff. For an album of this magnitude to just end leaves a sour taste in the listeners mouth. The other resemblance goes to the four-part Arp suite and America's four-part USA suite. Each blend into each other flawlessly, but the grandiose stature of the latter - coupled with the spectacular music video - cause Arp's subdued nature (in relative terms, of course) to simmer rather than combust. In an isolated vacuum though, the Arp suite is a delight that aptly layers a myriad of sounds while still allowing room for Deacon's shredded vocals to wail.
While Mystic Familiar isn't short on negative points that fail to satisfy the five-year wait, it's still a majestic album that achieves exactly what Dan Deacon set out to do. I merely question the praise when previous Deacon albums have done what Mystic Familiar has, but better. Granted, my cynicism is showing and the more positive attention directed towards Deacon the better. The man, the myth, the artist, deserves all the commendations one can muster.
B-
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