Ichi Ni San Shi, The Boxing Lesson, La Snacks, Dikes of Holland, Daniel Francis Doyle, Flower Man, and Cutting Losses
7&7 Is
Reviewed by Raoul Hernandez, Fri., Dec. 2, 2011
Super Secret Records' long and loyal run of local vinyl continues unabated on a second 7-inch by Ichi Ni San Shi. Named for a Kraftwerk uptick, Bill Jeffery's Casio keyboard caper unwinds Krautrock as a lithe fivepiece aiding the frontman's non-Auto-Tuned good humor ("Here Sometime Today"). The Boxing Lesson punches up four songs on two 7-inches for Detroit imprint New Fortune, Austin duo Paul Waclawsky and Jaylinn Davidson living up to the artwork: a Mayan temple among the moons of Saturn. "Darker Side of the Moog" sets a space pace – four songs totaling almost 24 minutes – ebbing more Wish You Were Here than Dark Side of the Moon. Drum machine aside, burnt flip side "Muerta" and sunspots on "Cassiopeia" arc tightly, closer "Drone To Sleep" floating a soulful machine beat alongside Waclawsky's David Gilmour-esque vox. Local quartet La Snacks' stenciled cardboard double A-side 45, "Christsakes and Milkshakes" b/w "My Little Sugary Friend," packages a tender morsel of 1990s Southern indie, pronounced riffs and vocals with minimalist rhythm. Robert Segovia's appealing pathos and his titular mantra on the second track leave a taste for next spring's LP. A pair of single-sided Monofonus Press 10-inchers leads with Dikes of Holland and Daniel Francis Doyle ponying up a pair of songs apiece, the former boy-girl gang revving its combustive garage élan on "Servant Girl Annihilator," then ramping down into the spidery crumble-and-run of "My Baby's Kinda Mean." One-man wild man DFD unleashes a fiery clamor of punk giddyup, though it's the extended Ray Davies-like schizoid ramble of "You're Nowhere" that bags the whole endeavor. Chicago's Flower Man, the Chris Bush half of Chicago-via-Kentucky electro-glitch duo Caboladies, rewires a clock, a dripping faucet, and a garden waterfall on Inversion Fortuite. Consider its antidote the hardcore beatdown of Cutting Losses' eight-song Endless EP on Austin's Metastasis Records, a camouflage-colored slab of beefy hate and circle-jerk mayhem. An "Island" of rage, this "Anvil" reminds one of what "Choices II" spews: "Never ... ever ... give a fuck."