Hi, happy Sunday! Can I get some experimental, collaborative electronoise up in here?
I am generally not a big fan of electronic music. My only real exposure to it was during the years I worked at a shitty chain music store, when we’d have to play shitty albums called Fired Up! or Ladies Choice: Two Hours of Sequenced Girl Power or what have you. It was mostly horrible remixes of songs I already hated, but we did occasionally listen to some original stuff, BT’s Emotional Technology or The Chemical Brothers’ Dig Your Own Hole. I like some of this stuff, but I’m mostly indifferent to it. So while I played the part of a good little consumer and bought myself a copy of the Amungus EP, I didn’t have high hopes that I would actually like it very much.
But honestly, I sort of love it?
For those not in the know, Amungus is composed of Robby Takac and Brian Schulmeister, half of Slender Fungus, the multimedia design company that has been creating and running the official GGD site for many years now. They’ve been around forever now, mostly just making appearances at Music is Art, always talking about releasing an album but never actually doing it. In addition to the two main members, Amungus recordings feature a revolving cast of guest vocalists and emcees.
A bunch of Amungus songs can be listened to at myspace or youtube, including songs not on the EP, so you’re free to listen to that and make your own judgment. Nevertheless, here is mine, track by track.
Bad Kitty - Alex Kelly, Ali Critelli, Nikki Hicks
I am pretty sure “Just make your kitty cat purr” is supposed to be euphemism, yeah? So let’s say this one is about sex. Catchy and sort of sleazy, but it works.
Green Tea - Alex Kelly, The Lady Tigra
This is my absolute favorite song on the album. I think it’s Alex on main vocals and then Lady Tigra has the rap, but that’s just a guess. For me, this song works because the vocals are fierce and the music is effective. It doesn’t sound derivative, it doesn’t overshadow any of the other elements, but it’s complex enough to be interesting.
Search Your Soul - Wise Mecca, Kim Monroe
This song reminds me of Shea Seger, which is a dumb comparison for me to make because no one really knows who Shea Seger is. Youtube her if you’re really curious. Kim has this tortured, twisty sort of voice that I love, and Wise Mecca is just fantastic. I love girl rappers, and the different pieces of this song work so nicely together. At times, the vibe is singer-songwritery, then more electronic, then more urban, then sort of folksy, and all these disparate elements still sound cohesive, and I think that sort of range helps a song breathe.
Man Up - Nikki Hicks
Okay. I told myself I wasn’t going to use the words “gay disco,” but I have to. This is the kind of electronic music I am less partial towards, but you could definitely dance to it, and it’s catchy as all hell, and Nikki can sing like nobody’s business. From a commercial standpoint, this song probably has more potential than anything else on the record, but it’s just not the kind of thing I generally listen to.
Serious Chemistry - Alex Kelly
I call this one the webcam song, because it’s basically about meeting some dude online and wanting to fuck him. So lyrically, this song isn’t like delving deep into someone’s soul or anything, but it’s motherfucking catchy, and I like it so much more than I was planning to. Alex is my girl.
Broken Love - Reginoff, Alex Kelly, Ali Critelli
The concubine song! And the only one on the EP that features a dude. This is definitely one of my favorites. A hip-hop sort of love song, and the video on youtube has synchronized hand gestures! Anyway, there’s a part of the song that goes “It’s been a long time / You thought I had concubines,” which is sort of the most hilarious thing I’ve ever heard. I mean, how much do you use the word concubine in conversation? And if your girl thinks that you are keeping a cadre of whores on the side, either she has some seriously unconquerable trust issues, or you are so skeezy that you made a woman of sound mind suspect that you were keeping a secret harem. I don’t think you guys are going to be fixing this broken love any time soon. But aside from that (possibly because of that?), I’m a big fan of the song.
Untouchable - Ali Critelli
Back to the disco, but I like this one a bit more. Melodically, there’s a lot going on, so that holds my interest pretty well, and Ali has a great voice.
That plus a remix is the EP. There are a few songs I usually skip, but there are also a few I love listening to on repeat, so it balances. And the songs I don’t prefer aren’t unbearably bad or anything like that, I’m just a very fussy sort of listener. Of the non-album Amungus tracks, I am partial to “Monochrome Monotony” and “My Fellow Americans,” though I have to say that “Here We Go” sounds like a pretty blatant rip-off of NIN’s “Closer.” I’m looking forward to the full album being released at some alleged future date, and I have a feeling seeing Amungus live would be a fun experience, so if anyone gets a chance to see them, please send me a review.
Relevant links:
site
myspace (most of the contributing artists are in the top friends)
youtube
buy the ep
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