Evoking early Tarantel, when they were just dorks, with similar post-rockers from that cohort of Temporary Residence (Rumah Sakit, Sonna), and Pell Mell, when they were just old nerds – that is, when crowds were “hip” to a very different market – the guitar music of ‘Future Street’ is bright, brief, and self-assured. It’s not arrogance: it’s Bill, recording as William Clay Martin, doing what he likes. Appropriately titled “Look Outside Today,” the jingle of an intro glares this is truly outsider music, but an outside which can no longer be measured by content but context. The simple, careening riffs, the shimmer of drones, the precious title slot that name-checks Pocahaunted – could it be, that once great “demo”, formerly thought dead? It’s certainly no fashion rag toss-off, though it is cassette-only with a Bandcamp emergency contact. The intro is so brief you may take a second look to make sure you didn’t miss anything, when in fact, the C20 runtime is not exhausted on either side. “Shipswatch” too has a bodies-at-rest, slacker vibe to it, more of a first act consuming most of side A. On the reverse, “Temporary Crown” disrupts the setting – pleasantly, though I was cool with what was going on before – artificially aging those ecstatic sounds with the bleed of weaving chords from math rock like Explosions in the Sky and Sleeping People (still in TRL territory, mind you) set in a queasy, possibly not deliberate rhythmic compound. In closing we have the adventures of “Chloe at the Pocahaunted Show,” still set in the soundtracked world, now populated with Eluvium like figurines of springy synthesizer. It’s both syncretic and homage, but not treacly nor too aware of its retrospection. Cassette comes with glossy J-card and nice paper labels in a run of 25 copies.
self-released C20
$4
HERE