BALDWIN BROTHERS Cooking With Lasers (TVT) In the last few years laid-back electronica, be it trip-hop, acid jazz, or watered-down techno, has supplanted Muzak in the sort of eateries where brightly colored cocktails constitute a first course–and the Baldwin Brothers’ full-length debut will surely be on many a restaurateur’s grocery list. The shuffling breakbeats, retro Fender Rhodes licks, unremarkable turntable work, and toothless lounge grooves don’t serve great songs–they’re all there is, and the ease with which vocalists (including Cibo Matto’s Miho Hatori and Frente’s Angie Hart) dominate the tracks on which they make cameos only emphasizes the lack of personality elsewhere.
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MANSION Mansion (Overcoat) The three young men who make up the front line of this new quintet look like they’re playing music to while away the hours while they wait to be asked to model for Prada, and their three-song debut EP sounds aptly disconsolate. Piano dominates the slow-moving tunes, but nice details lurk beneath the surface; a glimmer of acidic feedback here, sudden stabs of acoustic guitar there. John Klos’s wobbly singing makes me think of Nikki Sudden in his Jacobites days–he has a languorous tone that blurs the line between debauchery and depression.
SINISTER LUCK ENSEMBLE Anniversary (Perishable) Guitarist Charles Kim was the primary colorist for the dusky melodies outlined by Darren Richard in Pinetop Seven, and since he left that group a few years ago both parties have suffered. Richard’s recent music lacks the stunning detail of the group’s first recordings, and Anniversary, the debut album from Kim’s all-instrumental Sinister Luck Ensemble, is a collection of gorgeous, moody arrangements in search of real songs. The music is reminiscent of the cinema, from Robert Cruz’s Piazzolla-esque accordion melodies to Kim’s own Morricone-esque guitar figures; guests like Andrew Bird, Rob Mazurek, and Ken Vandermark add subtle details to the stark, remote soundscapes. But the pieces behave more like stills than movies. The enhanced CD also contains a short work by local filmmaker Jeff Economy for which the group’s “Cakewalk” serves as the sound track.
