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Shakey -

Palto Flats

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Good vibrations from Shakey, aka Lizzie Davis (Wilted Woman) and Silvia Kastel, with a first offering of their unique style & sound on NYC label Palto Flats -

Shakey present their first 'proper' release here, pressed up on a lush-looking and sounding 12" via the Palto Flats kru, who gave us the reissue of that nice Yasuaki Shimizu record, Midori Takada and a very good Georgia LP for example).
This is Shakey's first proper solo disc, but for eager ears - they did offer a wicked first taste of their sound with 'Steel Dub' on a various artists 12" for Berlin's Sameheads club and occasional record label earlier this year, but that seems to have escaped the discogs watchdogs.

This record is said to be 'a syncretic meshing of both artists sensibilities, encompassing both artists love of digi-dub, jungle, musique concrete, and the fusing of ambient textures with abstracted rhythms' and we'd be inclined to believe this sentiment, especially after having spent a nice bit of time getting lost in their very own jungle of sound, melody & rhythm here, within this fine record.

Kicking off in a near-literal way (well, as literal as musical depiction can go maybe), the first track sets off a barrage of kick drums, like a centipede playing a little double pedal bass drum, over one of the most techno-ish pheasantry approaches heard in some time, with a looping harpsichord melody that holds the glue between these hi-energy drums and pitch-scaling snares and those mangled 'drum breaks'(?) - just before the track splits off into quarters and eights and sixteenths all at once, like a planet of sound hit by an asteroid of notation and rhythm, in slow motion or something... This ain't no easy-listening 'intro' for lazy ears - this is the full pelt Shakey brain re-wire....
Junglist music for space ships and time travellers, and a proper twisted (fire)starter to this highly unique and really quite wonderful set of musical moods on this 5 track record.

Once the full-throttle opening track has done it's work and wiggled each part of your membrane to be tuned into the Shakey sound to come, track 2 'Slappy' comes to hypnotize your confused senses into a very welcome opium haze of tropical dub and occasional slap bass in the face... Low frequency tremors and echo chamber synth-bird tweets meet at the local soundsystem session near the purple palm trees. You're allowed to pull a bass-induced screw face here, but a kind of intoxicated smile will also do the job nicely on this one - no bad vibes allowed.

Next up, Dischidia comes to continue the trance with a weird & wonderful, kinda ominous tune that sounds like something you might hear if you were lost deep in the jungle with the monkeys, birds, unknown musical creatures and even the flora & fauna deciding to play a song to you...
Pied-piper type swells, and electro-sax type wind instruments play from behind the trees and deep in the foliage, with a strange but alluring composition of sounds slowly multiplying around you in new found harmonies, guided along by the percussive stick instruments played against the tree trunks from near and afar, with the grass and the rocks by the nearby stream gently playing it's own song along to the beat.

Flip the disc and it's time for some thunder & lightning.
Moth comes at you like the a bad trip compared to the previous song, but that's cool too, no complaints for a bit of darkness here in this expedition too - juxtapositions and counterweight have been adjusted very nicely, time for that night time dance around the fire with some ghostly creatures and ancient demons.
Before you know it, we step inside the final arrangement on this fine Shakey record - the final bit of oddball dance euphoria for all the musical wanderers and sound searchers out there - arpeggiating glistening melodics circulate around a sound that could perhaps be the fairy from Zelda high on LSD having a laugh at your expense while you selflessly dance to the syncopated heartbeat percussion. Yeah this is the kind of stuff you can get lost in, and there's lots of tripped out ambience to really put a spell on that blown mind for good.

And now the record is over... Damn... Might have to play it again for comfort -
This quiet world feels way to normal now.

Mastered and cut by Simon Davey.
Served in printed sleeve.
Front cover and label artwork by artist Chris Lux.

TRACKLIST:
1. Crayscandens 06:02
2. Slappy 06:41
3. Dischidia 06:00
4. Moth 02:34
5. e ocean 04:19


Crayscandens



Dischidia



Moth



e ocean