Yoko Solo: The Beeps
Quake Trap, 2006
For these appendages, The Beeps is a much more preferable state of being to The Bends, and you understand I am talking musically here. Aldous Huxley sussed acid as a filter-smasher, knocking out the brain’s utile tractor beam and letting the world flood in. We have the aural equivalent here. Brandon LaSan chucks everything at the laptop wall and it congeals into one massive Day-Glo bright funky mess. Breakbeat, hip hop, techno, acid, electro-collage, disco and well, like I said, just everything.
Of the fourteen tracks on offer, each one of those spins into several plateaus within themselves only to dart back to reassert themselves and then off again. But it is a coherent avalanche, danceable, listen-able, and really just resembling a rapid fire DJ mix.
Opener “Kluge (?!)” may be my favorite tune of the year so far. Beginning with spectral feedback, stable techno thud, and distant strings, various rhythms join the fray as does a distant foghorn drone which builds throughout. Spoken voices, snatches of choir, a myriad of distortions, and all manner of sonic trickery keep feeding collapse and rebirth, drone and rhythm returning stronger each time. “Partial Collapse/Useless Control Systems” spins on the phatest break you can imagine—rapid rolling bass and analogue squirts as a sequenced swarm loses all control and flails into evaporation while a laser drone queasily creeps up behind you. Echoed shouts complete the assault before it all stutters to a halt.
That accounts for about eight minutes of the albums’ forty-five. You need to pick this up, drop it on your iPod or whatever, and jump around town looking like a total lunatic—it’s the only way to spread the word, brothers and sisters....
