Rong Weicknes – Fat Possum Records
The Brussels/Brooklyn duo, vocalist Ma Clément and flutist and multi-instrumentalist Zach Phillips, have released their third album overall and their first on the Fat Possum Records label. Rong Weicknes is a surrealist and avant-garde. It is baroque pop with off kilter sequences and time-shifts in an eccentric kaleidoscope in the vein of Stereolab. Their ability to craft intricate and catchy songs is their strength – truly original and experimental.
Track 2, “As Above, So Below,” has a lounge, yacht-rock feel. The fluttering of the beat and bebop of tones coalesces into a fine free jazz funk. The vocals jump back and forth on the music line. “Haut Contre Bas,” track 15, sounds like if you’d mix Belle and Sebastian with Stereolab. The sentimental 60s Saint Germaine atmosphere and loads of acid jazz. Track 8, “I’m Scanning Things I Cannot See,” is chill and hazy, but sparks into a frenetic pacing with horns and jagged flute. “Love Weapon,” track 4, is their most recent single. It is fun 80s sophistipop in a relaxed, yet choppy mood.
Jazzy lounge pop at its finest. The sounds are of an eccentric improvisation that lands with melodic aplomb. Clément’s voice rolls through the soundscape like a gymnast on an ethereal high, and Phillips swings on the sonic space with delicate and layered chaos.
Track listing –
1: Hover
2: As Above So Below
3: Would You Rather?
4: Love Weapon
5: Rong Weicknes
6: Toute Suite
7: It’s So Easy
8: I’m Scanning Things I Can’t See
9: Kayfabe
10: My Oubliette
11: Dark Dancing
12: Great Blues
13: Transparent
14: Eternal Irises
15: Haut Contre Bas
Hard to pick favorites on this 15-track album. Love them all. These stand out to me: 2, 15, 8, 4, 13, 14, and 10.
– (h)earwitness