New Music: Dntel, The Skull Effect

Dntel - Natural Resources (Sub Pop 2007)

Dntel - Dumb Luck / Sub Pop

Life is Full of Possibilities. "(This is) The Dream of Evan & Chan." The Postal Service. Give Up. Wouldn't it be great if every review said this in the first line for Jimmy Tamborello's latest Dntel release and then didn't mention it again? Is there anyone who isn't tired of hearing how the monumental success of Give Up (second only to Bleach in Sub Pop's discography!) has made Tamborello one of indie's biggest names? Dntel just seems like a machine pitch for reviewers because, what the hell, everything has to measure up to Give Up now. If it's not as instantly brilliant as "Brand New Colony" or whatever then it must mean he's "trying something different." So there it was: Every review you'll ever read for Dntel in about five sentences.

Unfortunately, Dntel and The Postal Service (and Figurine, and James Figurine) are all inextricably linked by Tamborello's boardwalking. The guy has always been a meticulous producer dating back to his earliest work under the moniker as a kid fresh out of high school in the mid-90s. Dntel (or "don't tell," or nothing since Tamborello initially meant it to mean as much) is his oldest alias, and though it's no longer his most famous, there's no doubt he has to take a certain amount of pride in the limited body of musical magic he's managed to get out for it: 1999's Early Works for Me if it Works for You, Life is Full of Possibilities, two EPs, two singles. But those were all done in the days when glitch was still a relatively new idea that hadn't quite infiltrated the pop spectrum. Electronica was still mutating, still coming along. Pro Tools software cost $795. Different days, my man. Different days.

Six years on from his groundbreaking sophomore album comes Dumb Luck. You can do your own speculating on what the title means, but know this: The songs he's put together here (albeit with the help of a host of friends) are beautiful and elegant and there's no dumb luck in that. Tamborello was as careful with the details as he's ever been for this album, and it sounds as good as anything else he's put out. You may have already heard the title-track; that's just the first in a series of atmospheric songs that occasionally change pace but most often have at their core a steady beat that lets the melody swirl around it instead. Pure hypnosis.

"Rock My Boat" is an interesting example featuring Mia Doi Todd. The slowest song on the album (but also one of its shortest), "Rock My Boat" sounds exactly like its title, easing gently in and out of the troughs of white noise waves as the breeze blows back your hair and the clouds float by. Part of Tamborello's appeal for me is how he doesn't have to trick out a song with microtechnics to make it engrossing. Sometimes all it takes is a little vinyl hiss to make what would otherwise be a curious, horn-driven ballad like "Natural Resources" feel warm and approachable. For a guy who's built a reputation on the subtle (Mistake Mistake Mistake Mistake is such a Berlin-based album that you sometimes hardly notice it's on), it's these basic touches that keep the listener focused through the slower first half before the expected beats and beeps kick in for the finale.

As I mentioned, it's not all Tamborello. Of course, it never is: From Mia Doi Todd to Grizzly Bear's Ed Droste to Mystic Chords of Memory to Conor Oberst to, yes, Jenny Lewis, this album is awash in guest appearances and friends in high places to drop a vocal or two. But as it's always been with Dntel, nobody's overpowering the music; this was especially a shock with Oberst, who I thought for sure would flip out with another one of his "heart-wrenching" moments, but even Conor knows what restraint means, and the metronome-like "Breakfast in Bed" is all the better as a result. This whole album is better as a result. Maybe he'll finally get the critical shaft for that second Postal Service LP due later this year, but that would be dumb luck of a different kind. Tamborello's a solid producer and his faultless attention to detail sustains itself for at least one more album. There's no reason to think that, nearly 20 years on from his first informal musical forays, he will suddenly catch himself out with The Postal Service. If Life is Full of Possibilities is anything like Dumb Luck, 2007 is going to be a big year for Tamborello. Go get 'em, Jim.












The Skull Defekts - Sex Fracture (Release the Bats 2007)

The Skull Defekts - Skkull / Release the Bats

The Skull Defekts are a different story. Göteborg, Sweden isn't anything like LA, and Skkull probably captures this difference as dramatically as anything else. Hell, it's still winter out there... And though this weekend promises a white mix of its own Stateside, the effect won't be quite the same. Unless you live in Minnesota.

Now The Skull Defekts aren't entire unknowns. The core quartet (Coretet? Somebody take that for a hardcore cover band in love with Kieran Hebden) of Henrik Rylander, Joachim Nordwall, Jean-Louis Huhta, and Daniel Fagerstroem (who technically wasn't on Skkull but who is counted as a member) have been in a multitude of acts in and around the Göteborg scene for quite some time. Kid Commando, Union Carbide, Cortex, Trapdoor Fucking Exit, on and on it goes. They've been out and about too, assisting Damo Suzuki live and aiding Norway's "jazz and beyond" guy Lasse Marhaug on occasion. With a few releases behind them and enough live experience to warrant a change in formula, it was time to step in a new direction. Skull finds it.

Whereas Dntel uses glitch and warm electronic windshield wipers to glaze over the dirt of every day creating an idyllic world of either crisp mountain air or blissful summer sunsets, The Skull Effect's glitch is a grinding, tortuous walk through the Amazon. The beads of sweat pour down and the claustrophobia of the jungle takes its hold right from the outset of "Sex Fracture." You just don't get any breathing room and, in the best traditions of Wolf Eyes or a more bitter Black Dice, you never feel comfortable in the realm of the Skkull. No coincidence that they share common ground with Ann Arbor's finest, either: They actually did a split LP together last year. The Fang Bomb release might've done something to them: This is a much more minimalist approach than in past releases and the drone of each of these four songs, switched up only once for the broken toybox experimentation of "Breathing Your Face," is relentless. But relentless in a good way, because this stuff is still as heavy as ever and at the end of the day that's what you should want from a Skull Defekts album.

Though it came out in February, Skkull still has a hold on me even now. The buzzing cicadas of "Six Six for Eyes" and the low-end wavelengths that dominate this album are just what you need to frighten the fuck out of your neighbors and get the parents off your case about "what you're going to do now that you're graduating." Or maybe that's just me. Either way, The Skull Defekts are a proven method for warding off the weak and making the Cheshire cat grin that accompanies a Dntel album disappear almost instantly. Yin and yang, that's all it is. A question of balance, an answer of skulls. You can't fracture what's already broken.