Rapid Fire Reviews: Leor Miller, Cloakroom, compliment city
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Leor Miller – TRANSGENDER SUPERSPACE
I’ve been following Leor Miller for quite some time now, after first being introduced through their project Cipinko. Soon after they called it quits, Miller started releasing music as a solo project and hasn’t slowed down since. Their songwriting has always stuck with me as something incredibly unique and undeniably sweet, with compositions rooted in bedroom-pop and lo-fi akin to modern contemporaries such as Alex G, Sea Salt, and Spencer Radcliffe.
On TRANSGENDER SUPERSPACE, Miller’s tenth release since last October, they offer an endearing follow-up to their last LP, Gender Dysphoria Memes. This representation of Miller’s signature, sickeningly sweet, yet melancholy music is the most cohesive and formulated we’ve seen from them yet. Some stand out tracks for me are “colt 45” and “the difference,” which has one of my favorite lyrics from the release: “I can’t tell the difference / between you and the words you say / just like you can’t tell the difference / between what is and is not okay / and I wait for you to notice.” Plain and simple, TRANSGENDER SUPERSPACE is an extremely clever and poignant exercise in bedroom pop that offer’s some of Leor Miller’s strongest material to date.
Score: 8.6/10
Cloakroom – Big World
Riding off one of the strongest releases of 2015, Cloakroom are back and more alive than ever on “Big World,” a fuzzed-out down-tempo track featuring some of the most inventive melodies and uses of feedback we’ve seen from the band to date. The track was recorded at the band’s new studio and is an excellent display of how weighty, yet subtle heavy music can be.
Doyle Martin’s haunting and buried vocals claw their way through the ripping fuzz of bassist Bobby Markos and Brian Busch’s pulsing drum work. The tones range from a fuzzed-out and hazy Built to Spill feel, to ethereal, ambient Cocteau Twins territory, ending with feedback that rivals Thurston Moore. This release stands as the band’s first under Relapse Records, and it couldn’t be a more fitting track for the label, whose other acts include Red Fang, Baroness, Torche and Nothing. The new record is due out in 2017 and will contain an alternate version of this track.
Score: 8.8/10
compliment city – dont tempt me
Geoff Webb, (Bobbi Palace, PT$D Cowboy), offers an introspective take on their minimalist brand of bedroom-pop with “dont tempt me,” the first single released under the name compliment city. This track is brilliant, featuring bright and jangly guitars, programmed drums and swooning harmonies to create a lo-fi feel reminiscent of Guided By Voices, Teen Suicide, and early Saves the Day demos.
The song itself is catchy as all get-out, with excellent guitar work and production to match. Webb’s vocals sit well in the mix and their lyrics are on point, my favorite being: “We’ll skip rocks again I swear / unfreeze the pond with care / like a dirty stove top / unfortunate thoughts / I wanna write down / ironic love songs / but I can’t tell it apart / shred me to pieces / it’s art.” If you enjoy lo-fi pop like Holler, Glen Eyrie, or the aforementioned acts, you’re sure to love compliment city.
Score: 7.9/10
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AJ Boundy
