Not all of Stereogum’s favorite sounds conform to what folks expect us to cover. In this space, resident Bananafish fetishist Brandon Stosuy focuses on bands, albums, singles, and villages in Sweden that may otherwise pass by unnoticed. This installment’s eclectic virtual milk crate contains Lucky Dragons, The Julie Mittens, MGR, and Xela.

I wanted to start with Lucky Dragons, probably the widest known of this installment’s artists. They (Luke Fischbeck, Sarah Rara, and friends) are part of the current Whitney Biennial and are playing a show there 5/23 with the excellent visual artist Matthew Brannon (they did a Biennial-related show with Rob from High Places on 3/11) and are tight pals with YACHT, et al, so you could argue that they’re actually insiders, but this is about sound…

When I reviewed Widows last year, I complained about the ADD quotient of the work, that I was hoping Fischbeck would get into (or at least emulate) Henry Flynt or Burning Star Core and let it flow: “His live shows receive high praise– some sort of interactive Please Touch museum with audience participation and collaboration. To me, that seems like just the sort of endlessness Widows needs: songs moving from hand to hand, spiraling as long as the audience keeps the tools afloat.” Listening to the new, more impressively mysterious work Dream Island Laughing Language, I decided to close my eyes and forget about when one song stops and another starts. I did that last time a well, but here there’s enough going on that I can stop bothering with intention. They’ve tapped into something freer, less attached. So, if you see the work as a dream language, a stream-of-conscious river of sound, it’s all the more hypnotic … but then, going back on my own listening ideal, here’s one track by its phantom-limb lonesome. I’m offering the last song on side A of the vinyl. This way, at least, I’m only dislodging it halfway from its context.

Read More...