| Though she's known by several names within the ambi-dub tech sweepstakes (Small Fish with Spine, Neotropic, Future Sound of London contributor), downbeat doyenne Riz Maslen has more in common with the new brushed-cotton folk diabolique of Sharon Krause than she does the Matthew Dears of the world. In fact, after leaning against the pastoral psychedelic pole of her two previous CDs, 15 Levels of Magnification and Mr. Brubaker's Strawberry Alarm Clock, Maslen's Neotropic does something astounding in that it takes from a most unusual predecessor in the Roches and that gal-trios Robert Fripp-produced second album. The inspiration of his lush, humming Frippetronics and their gauzy eclat at full strum/thrum is immediately apparent on White Rabbits - the sparse, fried production, the spoke-stroked effects, the wiry whine of "Girls at the Seaside" and "New Cross." At every juncture, another door to the Roches opens for Neotropic - the block piano plink of "Inch Inch," for instance. But rather than suffer from derivativeness, Maslen - creates quiet new forms for influence to nestle within proudly. The flickering banjo-rattled mix of violin and guitar that is "Magpie" and the nervous spaghetti western whirr of "Feelin' Remote" (never has an harmonica sounded less blue and more…. grey) offer her textural take of Frippetronics an anxious edge the Roches never could. - Chord |
2XLP/Out Of Print