Welcome one welcome all, the best month of the year is here, and you know what that means right? That is correct, weird, unpredictable experimental insanity from Lou Kelly.
Have not heard of Lou Kelly? Well, you have now. What he makes is difficult to define because it is all very out there. Perhaps he summarized his own discography when he wrote an album called Genres That May or May Not Exist. To some that may sound like his music is not palatable. Definitely for some, it will not be, but for those that are ready to take the trip, you are in for some special sights and sounds.
Shriek is Kelly’s latest release. The album’s vocals are sourced from seven people screaming/shouting/singing gibberish over demos. What resulted are fourteen tracks of…an industrial mathcore circus on bath salts. Sometimes it is jazzy, sometimes it is a little dance-y, tribal, it is even ambient at moments. There are horns, blast beats, effects that sound like they are trying to bend the time-space continuum—etc.
The impressive thing about this release is how Kelly can just shift or melt the music into a completely different format. Hearing things go from piano lounge music into a sinister slice of cinematic chase sequence music while voices just scream over everything is a little different. It works though and it is damn cool. Or hearing what sounds like the Seinfeld bassline gets morphed into an anxious expose. Clearly, Kelly can do it all and he epoxies the genres in some pretty cool ways.
Press play, lose your mind and your senses.
