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***************

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