Log Across the Washer - Pancakes
(Crash Symbols 2013)
Pancakes' warm jazz production and quirky songcraft keep it timeless
Releasing an
album that weighs in at twenty-plus tracks is risky business, and it usually
results in either a fascinating collection of brief song snippets that hold up
on their own or an overindulgent mess. Luckily, taking a cue from Guided by
Voices’ bag of tricks, Tyler Keene’s psychedelic solo project Log Across the
Washer falls under the former category on his new tape, Pancakes, by varying his delivery dramatically over the hour long
album, but holding each track together with a vintage jazz vibe (Keene cites John
Coltrane as an influence). Though you might be tempted to lump Log Across The
Washer along with other current jazz and funk influenced acts like Mac Demarco
and Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Keene seems to live in a bubble that prevents him
from devoting too much of his attention to imitating a certain artist or scene.
Pancakes’ warm production and quirky
songcraft keep it timeless, and it’ll certainly hold up in just about any music
fan’s cassette collection.
Pancakes opens with “On the Swinging Stairs”,
appropriately titled considering its guitars, which seem to violently wobble
and bend at random. Keene’s multi-part harmonies and use of the trumpet on this
track recall Kevin Barnes’ clever arrangements on mid 2000’s Of Montreal LPs.
Tinny, dissonant organ carries the weight of “Electric Blanket”, an avant-funk
jam with one of the most addictive hooks on the album, featuring warbly
falsetto. Things get a bit more understated on Side B, opened by “So The Story
Goes”, a track free of any sort of the screwball experimentation that accents
most of the tape. Its guitars are metallic and narcotic and Keene’s vocals
lower to the soothing whisper one might expect to hear from Yo La Tengo. There’s
a lot of untapped potential hinted at in the B Side, and hopefully Log Across the
Washer Builds off the side’s triumphs.
https://crashsymbols.bandcamp.com/album/pancakes
