- Alex Israel, both a consummate Detroit insider (now based in Chicago) and a guy who isn't afraid to have fun within a template of classic sounds, caught many an ear with the off-kilter house of Walking to Guntersville, his W.T.-released vinyl debut, and his lighthearted approach continued to shine on his the curiously titled Front Butt EP on Crème Organization earlier this year. His latest, Witchetty Dreams, for Seattle's Night Gallery, is certainly his most polished collection of tunes yet, but that doesn't mean they're any less charismatic than the somewhat rougher tracks we've heard out of his camp previously.
Sparsely rhythmic and thick with lush Rhodes chords, "She Is So Nice" provides a wonderfully evocative bed for Israel's spoken-word narrative, even if this tale of rhinoceroses and dolphins is nearly unintelligible beneath layers of obfuscating echo. The title cut, funky bassline in full effect, hints at the more G-funkin' side of Israel's sound world generally found only on his Soundcloud. Slamming bass is once again in play on "Giant Otter," with blasting in-the-red synths taking things into stranger and stranger melodic climes. Short, sweet and simple, but with a heaviness that leaves a lasting impression, "Tocelo" might be the record's most assured floor-filler, even on a record that's rife with them.
Tracklist A1 She Is So Nice
A2 Witchetty Dreams
B1 Giant Otter
B2 Tocelo