swahili blonde Man Meat (CD, £11.25)

Swahili Blonde are a band from Los Angeles, featuring Red Hot Chili Pepper guitarist John Frusciante. The album also has a guest appearance from John Taylor of Duran Duran playing bass on the track “Tigress Ritual”. Swahili Blonde began with Nicole Turley (ex-WEAVE! drummer and vocalist) sitting in a little room amidst a bunch of instruments and recording equipment she didn’t know how to use. After many long nights, she still didn’t completely understand how everything worked, but was happy with the unconventional sounds and compositions she was able to make. She ended up being so happy with the result of her efforts that she decided to record and release a collection of songs for a full-length album, humorously called Man Meat. The album consists of multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Turley giving a recorded voice to paralleled realities, vibrant visuals, and mismatched rhythms and patterns, musical and otherwise. Alternating between tightly-wound and loose, the result is always funky as "Man Meat" mines the grooves of Krautrock and Dub, the skronk of '80s No Wave, and the Post-Punk sensibilities of the Raincoats and the Slits. The seven tracks are playfully driven by rhythm, with drum machines and live percussion rubbing up against ricocheting guitar melodies, spectral vocal mantras, with odd sounds both electronic and acoustic. Woven throughout the 7 songs are lucid and eloquent performances by violinist Laena Myers-Ionita (The Like), guitarist John Frusciante, bassist John Taylor, and multi-instrumentalists Stella Mozgawa (Warpaint) and Michael Quinn (Corridor). The album's mastering was done by Aaron Funk aka Venetian Snares aka the second half of Speed Dealer Moms. Tracks: Elixor Fixor, 2 Le Mampatee, 3 Tiny Shaman, 4 Dr. Teeth, 5 Red Money, 6 Release the ghost, 7 Tigress ritual