Secret Mommy- Plays

In a genre that sometimes borders on masturbatory and juvenile, Secret Mommy has crafted the most beautiful, organic glitch-pop record ever made. Straying far from the hyperactive twitching blips that dominate laptop music, Plays leans towards a more textured aural landscape; More Tim Hecker and less Dat Politics. Warm and rich, Plays is made entirely from sounds recorded by studio jams from Secret Mommy's group of friends, whom are mostly musicians in their own right.

"The one stipulation of the recording process was that no instrument was allowed to be electrified. No electricity would be used at all (except of course, to operate the recording gear). The idea was to create the most anti-electronic electronic album, free of any synthetic sounds (no electric guitar, let alone synths or drum machines), opting for an earthiness and soulful charm".

And it works. Plays is a delicate cut-and-paste masterpiece, at times rollicking with free-jazz vigor, at others a fragile musique concrete sound mosaic. Wherein an artist such as Caribou make Krautrock fuelled techno from real instruments, Secret Mommy's compositions take seemingly incongruous recorded sounds and re-sew them into a dense sonic fabric, the compositions take form after the music is recorded.

The album opens with a strong hint of The Winks, of whom Tyr Jami's cello appears predominantly in the mix. Also present is the unmistakable acoustic guitar work of Andy Dixon, mr. Mommy himself. I say unmistakable because Dixon released an album under the name The Epdemic which was sort of a hybrid between Indie rock and electronica, similar to Radiohead's Kid A. Dixon revisits the idea of combining his forte with real instrumentation and that of laptop sound manipulation, of course by now, Andy has mastered the latter and is once again attempting to destroy genres, but this time its techno he's after.

You'd think adding vocals to a glitched out acoustic guitar would come off as cliche, but on Kool Aid River, Greg Adams, formerly of The Red Light Sting, delivers a dose of emotion often missing from electronic music, even if its heavily altered and fragmented. The accompanying video manages to successfully capture the frustration of living in an age corrupted by endless flows of information; symbols, slogans, sound-bites, and so on. It also proves that Dixon is a genius. The video is up on his Website.

On Trust me, Cub the album takes a turn towards dense, layered, and atmospheric composition. The short animation included on the disc hints at a more pastoral inspiration. On Inch Up to Fur, one could imagine Jesse Zubot's violin the character of a Michel Gondry film, as the song builds to a lilting cinematic rhythm, only to sink back into the saxophone of Shane Krause (from They Shoot Horses, Don't They). The title track is built around accordions, a melodic vocal hook, and a solid beat, only to breakdown once again into a grab-bag of percussive toys.

The Tale of a Bird Hit By Lightning is probably the most playful on the album, a sort of twisted Irish jig with Sarah Jane of Doers fame playing the Recorder, and both of th Winks adding their spritely charm. Track 10 is actually is Secret Mommy's version of hip hop, with Adam Mills laying down a rap track! Up on Mt. Okay is like a drone folk out-take from an Oneida record, with Merida Anderson doing vocal duty, and Lee Hutzulak on guitar. The album ends with A Bear at Hotel Cuba, another fun song with bells and whistles and bleeps and guitar and Piano.

Quite simply this is the best techno album ever made, and I am amazed to have been part of it. The best album of 2007 (its released in February).