WOEBOT

BOOM BIP
BLUE EYED IN THE RED ROOM
LEX

How did Undie Hip-Hop end up here at the cutting edge of post rock? It
seems as though the backpackers hitched their way across town and in the
process swapped memories of empty malls for jet stream reveries. In
fairness Boom Bips common ground with Hip-Hop extends to a fondness for
sampling (a technique he eschews on "Blue Eyed in The Red Room") and a
previous collaboration with rapper Dose One, not much further. However,
somehow Hip-Hop's corpulence infuses his records, providing his "Rock
Proper" with a transfusion of motivation and righteous energy missing
from the default white indie model.

"Blue Eyed in The Red Room" is, like "Seed to Sun" Boom Bips debut, a
canvas for his yearning, seldom cloying harmonies. Unlike that earlier
record the tenor here is less crisp and ethereal, playing his own
instruments has lent the sound more body and a rougher edge. A track
like the opener "Cimple" is a case in point. The guitar part (reminiscent
of Neil Young's plangent strum on "Dead Man" soundtrack score) carries
the high harmony while beneath it drum machines flicker, box and pulse.
A harpsichord seems to pick up an altogether different rhythm. The whole
assemblage strobes with filigree and aftertrail and it seems a miracle
that it moves forward so gracefully, as purposeful as a hand-woven rug.

It's a surprise to learn that the record was laid down at Silverlake,
Los Angeles, as the sound is both unerringly rural and almost
frostbitten. Indeed one imagines "Blue Eyed in The Red Room" might serve
as an alternative soundtrack to "Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind".
"The Matter (Of Our Discussion)" even sports a romantic vocal, which
would match Kate Winslet's role, delivered here by Nina Nastasia. The
images Boom Bips instrumental mood-scapes conjure are most usually sub-zero:
"Girl Toy" depicts snowy neon-lit carparks, in "Aplomb" Alaskan rail-tracks.
This is carried through more broadly in details like the crisp alpine
chimes of "The Move" and the drums in "Soft and Open" which seem to
skitter as though about a frozen basement.

The record is also a welcome suppository of the generous melodies of
flared rock of the 1970s. For instance "Dumb Day" with its dulcimer,
glockenspiel and silently swelling organ gives the impression of being a
revision of The Band's "Music for Big Pink." Boom Bip somehow manifests
the same charming, yet sturdily unreconstructed masculinity, which
characterised music of this era. "Do's and Don’ts", the record's hit, is
strongly (almost certainly guilelessly) reminiscent of Faust, here
posing as hairy-footed Fugs, and at their most American.