Friday, January 4, 2008

STEVE THOMSEN-RETROSPECTIVE, CD, 2000, USA





A one-time member of L.A. Free Music Society legends Monitor and Solid Eye, Steve Thomsen's solo work stakes claim to a curious and fascinating little corner of the experimental musical universe uniquely his own. It's a soundworld simultaneously knowingly campy and faux spooky, but always maneuvering in an oddly glazed and amniotic afterglow. Thomsen's a master at creating sublimely wonky instrumental pop music, albeit instrumental pop music whose component parts seem simultaneously heat warped and drug hazy, with musical phrases frequently being sucked backwards against the grain of the composition. I recall trotting out the phrase "marshmallowy bloop balloons" in an old review I wrote about his CD "Folding Pineapple" (coming soon) to try to characterize the peculiar faded pastel weirdity of Thomsen's woozy tunes and this atmosphere dominates much of the proceedings here to be sure, but this particular CD of Thomsen's (the first of many I'll be posting) has a specific ace in the hole absent from his other recordings that made this seem like an optimal point of entry for the uninitiated: five tracks accompanied by vocalist Marilyn Defrange, whose highly poised and eerily preternatural delivery imbues these cuts (specifically tracks 1, 7, 12, 17 & 24) with a distinct unearthly gravitas that I for one find jaw dropping and deserving of an album unto themselves (try sequencing these into a set...). Sounding like some cough syrup-induced Krofft Superstars fever dream, this is music for sleestak dance parties.

***************NEW LINK POSTED SEPTEMBER 2012***************

Get it here  

6 comments:

fuzztunnel said...

Your description has sold me- will check this out immediately!
Happy New Year, by the way!

gomonkeygo said...

Sleestak dance party! All right! I gotta hear this one.

Anonymous said...

It is a real beauty, many thanks kind Sir.

Psyence Guy said...

Just listened. It's like when you wake up in the middle of the night and still feel in a dream state, not sure if this is still a dream or reality. If you could translate that into music. Loved it. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Absolutely brilliant, sounds like fluid fairyland, Neo Exotica, Tropicadelics. Since I worship Monitor, I was excited to realize that Thomsen released solo work, I didn't know that before. Please keep the other CDs coming.
JDB

burntoutsavannahs said...

yr blog has fast become my go to blog to find bizarre/obscure records. thank you thank you thank you a million times for this record. this & robert turman's way down is all i have been listening to lately.