Palmist Records – Split Releases Round Up
FatCat Records have a new sister label named Palmist which is releasing things currently as split album-length offerings. Releases one and two from the imprint are covered below along with release number 21 from FatCat’s own Split Series of 12 inch platters.
Foot Village/Super Khoumeissa – Split Series #21
LA quartet Foot Village‘s contribution to this release comes in at 16 minutes long and has “bong” in the title so on paper at least sounded all good. Even reading that they employ only drums, vocals and a megaphone and have some sort of philosophy about rebuilding the world after the apocalypse (that’s October 21st now right?) didn’t cause any worry. But boy should it have. ‘Let Bebongs Be Bebongs, Idiot’ has to be one of the biggest musical wastes of time ever with its best feature being its title. Like a rightly excised John Bonham drum solo for the first six minutes once the vocals come in they’re more spoilt-child-hollering than politicised-adult-venting. Good luck in making it all the way to the end.
Super Khoumeissa call northern Mali home and have never before had any recordings officially released in their 20+ years in existence. Playing Takamba (both a style of dance and of music) their three tracks are spare affairs made using only traditional instruments. If you know what to expect then you’ll probably lap this up but for my money I’d rather have a bit more oomph in the sound. Maybe you need to experience it with their dancers doing their thing too.
US Girls/Slim Twig - Palm 01
US Girls/Slim Twig – Palm 01
Meghan Remy’s US Girls identity is one that produces shrewdly skewed takes on the American pop dream, starting off as it does with ‘If These Walls Could Talk’ sounding exactly like ‘The Locomotion’ before the continued background drone and effect laden sub-Shangri Las vocals overlay it with a druggy, messed up patina. ‘Morgan Bolger Lahr Haley’ could well be the name of anywhere between one and four comets and feels like a remainder from some Soviet-era Sputnik launch film. ‘Pamela + GG’ sounds like Lady Gaga incognito down at the local karaoke bar impersonating a geisha girl version of Gary Glitter before things come over all normal on the torch song ‘Untie Me’.
Slim Twig has a curiously medieval sound on the go on his opening track ‘Paisley Skin’, a bizarrely affecting psychedelic rap that includes lengthy samples of Bogart and Bacall dialogue from some film or other. ‘Priscilla’ invokes the spirit of Mark E. Smith in the vocal portions on a mildly ghostly soul number. Similar to the recent Cat’s Eyes album all the material here is both heavily in debt to - and at the same time successfully updating - the classic solo artists of the Sixties. A singular talent and one whose upcoming full length release should be eagerly anticipated.
Bitches/Yuppies - Palm 02
Bitches/Yuppies – Palm 02
Originally from Oxford but now London-based Bitches are a duo with a sound that belies their small number. And it’s quite an American sound at that, bringing to mind the likes of both Minor Threat and Huggy Bear as it does. They’ve got good riffs, tribal thumping drums and ironically amusing lyrics (when they’re singing them and not shouting for all their worth). Both energetic and fun this is a bright and punchy offering with a fair amount of promise for the future. All the songs barely make the two minute mark but they save the best till last in the shape of the delightful ‘Cholula’.
Yuppies hale from the American Mid-west and by the level of energy they pour into their punky collection of songs here they can’t wait to leave. Whether it be turning the Glee phenomenon on its head in ‘Sunglasses’ or pounding away Black Flag-style on ‘Let Me In’ they deserve to have plenty of attention paid to them. ‘For The Future’s Sake’ is the group’s most wryly comic achievement whilst final track ‘Black And White’ is the release’s musical highlight.
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