REVIEW: FUTURE BLONDES - 1111/UNITY PURE EPs

To the particular vein of Houstonians whose circle we travel in, those local acts whose prominence extends outside the beltway have done so as purveyors in the grab-bag category often given the sharpie treatment of "outsider music;" think Jandek, Kable and Daniel Johnson. Indeed, the most favorable and widespread press coverage of artists from our city as of late continues to be among folks like Indian Jewelry, Jana Hunter, Insect Warfare and Rusted Shut who, though they may fall well enough in the broadly defined category of 'indie' and appropriate for outlets like Pitchfork and Paper Thin Walls, are nevertheless still too far to the left of the dial to ever be imaginable next to a truck commercial on LA's INDIE 103.1 FM. Given that, it's not terribly surprising that Domokos, the one-named but many-alter-egoed crafter of decidedly acerbic sounds, is not only so well known locally (he was once a candidate for musician of the year in the Houston Press Music Awards, after all), but that even folks who might not be able to ingest more than a few moments of his music still consider him a key fabric to the tattered tapestry of our scene.

Future Blondes is Dom's latest project (he's also involved with the aforementioned Indian Jewelry and Rusted Shut, and has toured and been involved with far to many local and national acts to bother listing). Though the credits on the insert for 1111/Unity Pure list a number of collaborators (and their MySpace lists over two dozen, including a pair responsible for "time travel" and one for "hair/drone"), the strong similarities in the electro sound palette between these recordings and those for A Pink Cloud, his previous solo outing, are unmistakable. This is vintage Dom, but with a fresh take on his approach to 'noise' both structurally and sonicly (and believe us when we say we are not getting into a discussion of whether this is "noise music", what that label even means, etc etc etc etc).

To understand, A Pink Cloud was, in many ways, a Sufic exercise. Its overdriven beats and and disorienting wash of tone repeat, almost without variation, in tight circles like an angry mechanized riveter at the mouth of a river of endless aluminum. To these loops, hulking green machines perform as Whirling Dervishes, repeating the name of Allah while spinning in circles towards a dizzying trance where the self and the ego are centerfuged away and only His presence remains. Like a Rothko, the music of A Pink Cloud is inscrutable, and meaning is almost entirely dependent on what the consumer brings to the composition rather than any intent of the artist to communicate a truth.

And while there is a good deal of this beginning, middle and endlessness to be found on 1111/Unity Pure ("Fla 012 Side A" and "Road to Heaven," stick out in our minds), there's a much greater sense of movement on these EPs. Part of this comes from a greater use of nuance, more richly layered compositions where elements come and go and change as they do. And while tracks like "Biaggio Pummel 1" and "Escape 4" are very loud and very distorted, there is no longer the sense that the production choice was made to run each individual instrument through a Tubescreamer pedal, and then the final mix through one more time just for good measure. The latter is a good example of how Future Blondes differs from A Pink Cloud in terms of the interjection of new elements into the spinning tires of drone. There is a violence, an anger in the splicing and slashing of harrowing heavily processed vocals into the midst of the tune, a jarring effect that you don't really come across in APK recordings.

Whats perhaps most striking about this record is how accessible some of the tracks are, even to softie pop lovers like us who are able to set aside our being miffed about their being no imminent Western Civilization release only upon hearing the phrase "Papermoons full length coming soon." "2016 P.I.R.O.S." or "Future Blondes" would not sound out of place if slipped in between The Orb's "Pomme Fritz" or "Outlands" (and yes, to jog your memory, this is the same The Orb that brought you "Little Fluffy Clouds"). People who like Aphex Twin in the Come to Daddy era would most likely find a similar satisfaction in tracks like "Migration." Now, both of these bands are pretty far from 'the outside;' they've both been on MTV and their songs used in television commercials (Aphex Twin's "B4" in an anti-drug commercial, wtf). And that, we guess, speaks to the power of this kind of music, that something so deliberately beyond unstudied comprehension or classic pop-music structure can underpin even so base a message as the marketing of consumer goods and behavior. 1111/Unity Pure (which, by the way, is sold together as a two-disc set at Sound Exchange) is difficult but rewarding listening, and you won't probably get much satisfaction out of it if you just put it on to ignore and do housework. It won't be for everyone, but it just might be for you and one or two of your sometimes cryptic and unknowable moods. Recommended.

You can catch Future Blondes June 26th at Numbers (for the Free Press' weekly Recession Thursdays show) along with A Thousand Cranes, TENSE, Balaclavas and Voidmate.