Word: bassing
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...bulk of their eponymous debut in a studio, but before the album’s release decided to scrap the meticulously-recorded studio cuts in favor of live 4-track recordings. The result was what one would expect when condensing a room full of pummeling drums and gut-wrenching bass amplifiers down to anemic laptop speakers, tinny iPod headphones, or muddy home stereos: while it reminded a lucky few of that crazy show they saw in a dirty Providence loft, to the rest of us it sounded underpowered and underwhelming. Subsequent releases improved the recording quality, but still sought...
...proper mic placement and high-end recording equipment gives bassist Brian Gibson’s densely layered effects a bit of breathing room, revealing a textural intricacy that is lost in live performance. On “The Sublime Freak”, Gibson’s feedback-soaked bass rattles the hi-hat before diving into a riff as catchy as you can expect from the borderline noise that is Lightning Bolt. Multiple effects chains are audible above Chippendale’s machine gun drumming, and the latter half of the track features multi-tracking that would have been unthinkable...
...Flooded Chamber” is crafted from loops of pitch-shifted feedback, coalescing into a mournful seagull cry above Chippendale’s skittering ADD drums. “Rain on Lake I’m Swimming In” is a wash of echoed, harmonized bass melody underneath whimsical, indecipherable processed vocals. Both of these tracks show a marked deviation from the duo’s relentless riffage without sacrificing their signature sound...
...overall development can also be heard on a micro level, with constant subtle variations on otherwise repetitive riffs. This is most evident in Chippendale’s frenetic drumming, which offloads much of its traditional duty as repetitive time-keeper to Gibson’s chunky, rhythmic bass. Chippendale is thus free to play as a soloist in a jazz combo, exploring every possible subdivision and inversion of the dominant rhythmic motif. The drums in “Nation of Boar” heighten tension as they increase in complexity, reaching a frantic virtuosic peak before lunging back into...
Opener “Convinced of the Hex” immediately grounds the album in totally foreign territory for Flaming Lips fans. Bass-heavy, rife with corrosive guitar licks and polyrhythmic percussion, the song features a spaced-out—and for the first time, restrained—vocal performance from Coyne. He’s still speaking his own half-cracked pseudo-religious language, but it’s obvious from the beginning that, for the first time in a long time, lyrics don’t matter very much to the Flaming Lips. The downright raucous...