Is Vs. Ought

In Flagranti “Genital Blue Room” – Following a brief intro tune, In Flagranti begin their brilliant debut LP with a track that immediately asserts control over your central nervous system, and obstensibly casts the listener as an object of desire caught between the first-person demands of the lead vocal and a third party’s voyeuristic urging for total submission. All of In Flagranti’s exotic neo-disco tracks are fetishistic in content as well as in form, resulting in a 17 track blur of signifiers that are meant to be more exciting than what is being signified. The seduction informs the act, and the implication of the sound is crucial to its physical function. (Click here to buy it via Codek’s In Flagranti site.)

Holiday On Strings “Touch The Tiger” – The singer’s voice has the weary “how could this night possibly get any worse” tone of Lou Barlow, but the stark, atmospheric track is distinctly un-Sebadoh. True, he sounds like he’s lost and confused in an environment of creepy decadence, and there’s a sense of impending doom that never lets up, not even in the lingering acoustic outro, but it doesn’t sound as though he’s in for a bad time. In fact, it seems like this definitely could be the most exciting and romantic (in any sense of the word) night of his life, even if it turns out to be something that he regrets. (Click here to buy it via the Holiday For Strings official site.)

Elsewhere: Eric Harvey has a few things to say about music blogs.