Neat Beats – Cosmic Surgery(2011)

Posted by HHB Admin on October 17, 2011 – 5:08 pm

01. Graffiti on a Tuesday Night 04:20
02. Why Would We Need Brakes? 02:38
03. This Machine Destroys Everything 03:23
04. One for the Road, Two For the Vast Cold Vacuum of Space 01:31
05. Science is My Girlfriend 03:34
06. Turning on the Large Hadron Collider03:54
07. Video Game Characters 03:24
08. Space Secretary 00:52
09. Kung Fu of the Astronaut Drunkards02:32
10. Origami Space Ship 02:51
11. I love you Vashti… 01:42
12. … I miss you so much (parts 1, 2 & 3) 04:42
13. I hope I think of bike riding when I’m dying 02:42

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Neat Beats mastermind Alvin Fenner must be a patient guy – Cosmic Surgery was painstakingly assembled out of an array of chopped-up beats and samples, the product of untold lonely hours spent behind a laptop, mixer and turntable. But all that work has paid off: Fenner’s debut full-length is technically sophisticated, emotionally complex and purely enjoyable.

Fenner knows how to dice a sample right—in album highlight “Turning on the Large Hadron Collider,” he reverses, chops and loops a recording of Erik Satie being played on guitar, producing a sublime glimmering effect. But he also gets results when he isn’t editing sounds to oblivion, as when he drops a recording of a father teaching his daughter how to ride a bike in closer “I Hope I Think of Bike Riding When I’m Dying.” As the man says, “Good job, sweetheart!” over a swell of reflective piano and chaotic free-jazz drumming, you can practically see your life flash before your eyes.

Fenner might take cues from iconoclasts like Flying Lotus, but he’s not being experimental for experimentalism’s sake. A lot of heart clearly went into Cosmic Surgery and it’s all the more poignant for it.