This
Bank Holiday
"Home Time is Safe Time" CDR
Asaurus
Records
Genres: lo-fi, DIY, indie pop
Asaurus Records
PO Box 0664
Allen Park, MI
48101-0664
Aug 27 - Sep 3 2004 |
Matthew Baringer records experimental pop songs with absurdist
song titles and lo-fi recording values that would put Guided By
Voices to shame. This Bank Holiday is his main
project, and Home Time is Safe Time is its debut album on his
very own Asaurus Records label. The TBH style is a very unique brew, favouring unusual,
minor-key melodies and cheerfully depraved moods. Right off the
bat with Home Time, you get a feel for what Matthew aims to
achieve - opener "Even in the Future Nothing Works" is warm,
fuzzy, and positively infectious. The same can be said for the
folky "Matthew Visits (And Learns to Like) The People's Republic
of China." Even the more eerie, detached
songs ("He Prefers the Movie Novelization," "Look, I'm
Just Another Member of the Food Chain") have a distinct sense of
intimacy amid the dark textures and minor chords. There are also
a couple of more traditional songs ("Are You Sure You Didn't Just
Make Thousands of Mistakes?" and the vaguely GBV-esque
"Whitney Wants to See the Receipts") that make the disc a
bit more accessible. While Baringer's unpolished voice
could dissuade some listeners, its unusualness is actually quite
effective in the context of these eleven songs - just as Home Time's
frequently bizarre compositional structure takes some adjusting to, so
do its vocals.
While Baringer has probably painted himself into a corner as
far as niches go, Home Time is Safe Time is a tremendously
successful release in my eyes. Music lovers willing to give a
listen to some heartfelt, unconventional DIY pop could find this CDR
nestled in their stereo for months on end.
87%
Matt Shimmer [Vitals:
11 tracks, distributed by the
label, released 2003] |