Mourning [A] BLKStar
co-founders
LaToya Kent
and
RA Washington
conceived
Me:You
as a divergence from their Cleveland-based collective. The alias suggests intense intimacy. Indeed, first result
Field Tapes in der Trash
emanates out of a heat haze with greater levels of sensuality, conflict, and companionship felt in
Kent
's vocals and emphasis on person-to-person lyrics. Keyboardist, bassist, and sampling and loop specialist
Washington
adds to the mix only
Jah Nada
Laura B.
, associates presumably responsible for increasing the noise quotient with the fiery and murky guitars (at the least; their roles are unspecified). While
Field Tapes
communicates directly to the mind and soul, as well as the body -- programmed and played drums crawl, stagger, and throttle through almost every song -- it's as avant-garde as anything
have made before. Its silt-caked composite of poetry, electronics, and live instrumentation obscures the borders between soul, jazz, blues, funk, rock, and dub in a way that is very post-punk. (The lysergic collagist approach is reflected in the album's graphic likeness to
Cabaret Voltaire
's
The Voice of America
.) Moreover, had
run out of ideas, an update of something by like-spirited early
Funkadelic
or
Tricky
,
Keith Hudson
, or
King Midas Sound
could have fallen into place without disrupting the mood.
sets it in the churning first song "Burns," summoning breathily with an imaginable wink, "Come with me -- I got a little magic in my pocket." She extends admiration and solidarity with sweetness in "Sun Zsu," a lurching house-adjacent track with slightly unsettling atmospheres: "Cherries in a bowl/You are beautiful/My sisters are close together." Pugilistic drums and whirling synthesizer accompany her on "Crawl on Yer Belly," an ecology lesson. After the first side ends with the solemn flicker of "Antiquity," the crew generate blasting motorik punk for a wailing
to confront a no-doubt startled subject about power dynamics. That energy continues into the defiant and fraught "Gimlet" ("You could be a ally -- but you don't know my skin") and bracing "Git Ready," then decelerates for the grim if motivational aftermath account "Portabelly." The title song, a proposed cease fire of sorts, finishes it off: "Lay down your weapons, my tongue is my knife." Spellbinding stuff, all of it. ~ Andy Kellman