Sexy Lords Of The Marijuana Deathsquads

If I hadn't already heard the wicked brilliance of the bizarro 'Ewok Sadness', I still would have bought Oh My Sexy Lord from Title in Southbank on Monday. Why?

1) I was buying other records at the time, and when the impulse hits me, it hits hard, and I find it hard to reconcile with reason (Beaches, Woollen Kits, Super Wild Horses and Constant Mongrel also now have a new home);

2) Because Title had 20% off everything in the store (so I had to buy a Taschen Press book on classic Horror films and a DVD of Klaus Kinski Western The Great Silence);

3) And because Oh My Sexy Lord is the latest album from a band called Marijuana Deathsquads.

Seriously, how can you fuck with that? One of the best band names I have heard in - well, ever. It helps that the Minneapolis madman are led by Ryan Olson, he of Polica and Gayngs fame/infamy - the guy has the knack of finding the best hooks from the wildest nooks and crannies. Roboticised, squeaky vocals over analog synth drones and freakouts, epileptic drumbeats and the solar flare of a comet trail frying the edge of the tape - this is what Tyondai Braxton should have created after having left Battles behind (not that his experiments aren't worthy of consideration...just that this is more inherently interesting).

Get Oh My Sexy Lord here through Totally Gross National Product. Then play it really really loud, grab your other, and get freaky. Like, REALLY freaky...

Active Child Is All You'll See

Pat Grossi - Active Child to you - surely is Justin Vernon's brother, right? At least spiritually. The warped R'n'B soul that permeates Active Child's debut LP You Are All I See is a synthetic, samples heavy sister to any of Vernon's works under his Bon Iver moniker, or even his Gayngs supergroup. The vocal delivery is mirrored; that haunting, quasi operatic falsetto that flows over the strings of your heart is omnipresent throughout, with it be on the choral beauty of the opening title track, the RnB meets chillwave majesty of 'Hanging On' and 'Playing House' (that also features compatriot How To Dress Well). Like another chillwave exponent, Washed Out's Ernest Greene, Grossi has an incredible, INCREDIBLE voice, and refuses to hide behind cold production - the arrangements are splendid, but the voice is front and centre, and all the better for it. I Wasn't sure whether I would get into this all the way through to the closer, but (also like Washed Out's debut from earlier in the year, Within And Without) You Are All I See doesn't just hold the interest, but is imminently playable. A more sonorous, lush and beautiful album you aren't likely to find this year.

You Are All I See is out through Vagrant Records - grab it here.

Active Child - Hanging On
Active Child - See Thru Eyes