You gotta love where James Murphy is at right now. Not only is he co-running DFA, which is just about to drop its best non-Murphy album in two years with Hercules and Love Affair's dazzling debut, but he finds time to trickle out gems such as this latest beaut - which I nearly overlooked.
Confuse the Marketplace is a strictly U.S.-only twelve-inch that assembles a bunch of tracks released elsewhere over the last year. Add this on top of the treasure trove of A Bunch of Stuff and the physical release of 45:33, which actually contained this release, and dude's covered his ass and bought himself plenty of time before people start hassling him for a Sound of Silver follow-up. Included on this EP is a pretty fucking sweet remix of "North American Scum" titled the "Onanistic Dub" and a blazin' drum happy track called "Hippie Priest Burn-Out," which doesn't recall the Fall as its title does.
The prime rib on this joint, however, is "Freak Out/Starry Eyes." A generous 12 and a half minutes, the song comes in two parts: "Freak Out" is a sexy, snail-paced groove glazed with soulful disco overtones that sounds as if he's enacting Remain in Light in slow-mo just because he can. The transition into "Starry Eyes" is a bomb of percussive destruction filled with cowbell shrapnel. When that song abruptly appears, it's as if Mr. Hyde has appeared chilled in hipster garb with a crate of Yello records under his arm. The cold, syncopated electronics are nurtured by sensitive horns that turn this from detached android-pop into something that can feel, like a replicant... or Johnny 5.
LCD Soundsystem "Freak Out/Starry Eyes"
Confuse the Marketplace is a strictly U.S.-only twelve-inch that assembles a bunch of tracks released elsewhere over the last year. Add this on top of the treasure trove of A Bunch of Stuff and the physical release of 45:33, which actually contained this release, and dude's covered his ass and bought himself plenty of time before people start hassling him for a Sound of Silver follow-up. Included on this EP is a pretty fucking sweet remix of "North American Scum" titled the "Onanistic Dub" and a blazin' drum happy track called "Hippie Priest Burn-Out," which doesn't recall the Fall as its title does.
The prime rib on this joint, however, is "Freak Out/Starry Eyes." A generous 12 and a half minutes, the song comes in two parts: "Freak Out" is a sexy, snail-paced groove glazed with soulful disco overtones that sounds as if he's enacting Remain in Light in slow-mo just because he can. The transition into "Starry Eyes" is a bomb of percussive destruction filled with cowbell shrapnel. When that song abruptly appears, it's as if Mr. Hyde has appeared chilled in hipster garb with a crate of Yello records under his arm. The cold, syncopated electronics are nurtured by sensitive horns that turn this from detached android-pop into something that can feel, like a replicant... or Johnny 5.
LCD Soundsystem "Freak Out/Starry Eyes"
