RecommNeds 200th Edition: Papir, Wet Hair, This Is The Kit & The Babe Rainbow
By Aaron Stein Oct 4, 2017 • 11:01 am PDT
Papir: V
According to my records, this will be the 200th incarnation of RecommNeds extending back to its pre-JamBase days. Thanks to all who have been following along for any or all of it. I hope you’ve made some nice discoveries along the way, with many more to come. To celebrate, here’s a set of personal under-the-radar, no-theme favorites from 2017 that I haven’t had a good opportunity to plug yet. We’ll start, where else?, with some sick Danish jam band action, this time courtesy of Ned-faves, Papir. These guys don’t even bother naming their albums or tracks any more, just a V to remind us it’s their fifth album. Instead, they save their creativity for the tremendous guitar-bass-drum studio jams. And I do mean tremendous: just all flavors of deep improv, from hair-raising to frightening, pure joy to pure beauty, done with the expertise of a trio that’s getting better and better. A must listen for any jam fan (hopefully that means you!).
Wet Hair: The Floating World
Next up is a new one for me, but players in the D.I.Y. scene of Iowa City for a while, Wet Hair. Their latest record, The Floating World, is apparently the end of the road for the band, or at least the close of a chapter as they leave their home … and if that’s the case, it’s quite a statement. The album is a dense re-imagining of synth-pop, deconstructed and rebuilt with a heavy framework of krautrock and psychedelic grooves. This is a classic, “What am I listening to and where can I get more?” kind of an album, totally invigorating and constantly surprising with perfectly constructed tracks bracketing a centerpiece eight-minute slammer. I think you’ll dig it, I really do.
This Is The Kit: Moonshine Freeze
Sometimes you hear an album and you get to the end and you have no choice but to go back to the start and listen again. Moonshine Freeze, the new one from This Is The Kit, is in that category – it’s that good and there’s no way to digest it all in one pass. A project led by Kate Stables, their last album was featured in the RecommNeds a few years back, but this one feels like a huge leap forward, a folk-centric piece of art, byzantine songwriting fleshed out with guitars and banjos and horns and overlapping rhythms. This is sure-to-make-you-smile music, so enjoy!
The Babe Rainbow: The Babe Rainbow
Finally, a little Down Under action with , from Byron Bay, Australia. Out with their self-titled debut full-length, these guys are a lot of fun. While the 1960s throwback thing may feel like it’s reached its limit, The Babe Rainbow seems to squeeze new life out of it, bringing a funky, sexy, groovy-baby sound that’s somehow got a freshness to it. Plus, how could you not love a record with a song called “Monky Disco” that’s got more than enough boogie in it to earn such a moniker? This one really does it for me and I hope you feel the same, and if not, just stick around until next week or the next week after that, I’m sure there will be something in the next 200 that you’ll just love. Thanks!
