handsome eric - nah i'm good
(Self-Released 2014)
Nah I'm Good may be spartan in its lo-fi arrangement, but its delivery is surprisingly confident and poised, recalling the reverby drone-pop of Beat Happening: blunt, tuneful and tinged with deadpan humor. Taking a pseudonym that seems to be borrowed from a 1950's pro wrestling villain, Stephen O'Dowd (aka Handsome Eric) combines repetitious layers of acoustic guitar, keyboard and drum machine to create pop in the vein of Philip Glass. The six brief songs on Nah I'm Good are deceptively simple, their minimal construction creates a narcotic effect on the listener as they slowly evolve. Like watching the sun's arc slow across the sky, one cannot fully appreciate the music by being overly vigilant in listening to it, rather it's best to let it wrap around you, passively noticing the changes in mood and texture as they come, like the percussively strummed chorus on "Terror Blanket" and the explosive distortion that concludes the EP's final track. Overall, this release is a very impressive first effort, similar in tone to Yuck's self-titled debut as well as much of the Coma Cinema discography.
