Ichi Ni San Shi
Slow Truth (Super Secret)Between tenure in bands as stylistically varied as Stretford and Attack Formation, Austin vocalist/trumpeter Bill Jeffrey continues defying convention. Ichi Ni San Shi’s debut long-player thus arrives as his chocolate-and-peanut-butter moment – an unlikely but revealing soundclash of disparate genres. On first reading, New Zealand’s indie-pop renaissance of the Eighties and Kraftwerk-derived techno-minimalism don’t have much in common, but their sonic kinship becomes a foregone conclusion on Slow Truth. Against a canvas of faraway guitar and sleek keyboard mechanics, Jeffrey’s plaintive, transitory vocals take on real emotive weight on tunes like “Almost Ready” and “Cut and Dry.” Faint shades of James Murphy’s “All My Friends” abound. Sheila Scoville’s unobtrusive beat selections provide just the right amount of propellant to turn these free-range introspections into dreamlike earworms. Somewhere in a parallel universe, there’s a cult film missing its soundtrack.
This article appears in November 29 • 2013.
