Japancakes - Belmondo: Bliss Out v. 19
(Darla)
Always expect something different from a Bliss Out release; that's the only real rule of the Bliss Out series. Japancakes' Belmondo is no different, as the band tries to branch out in a few different ways in order to revitalize their tried and tired concept of endlessly repeating the same phrases over and over again.
The main experiment for Japancakes' Bliss Out seems to be slowing things down a little. Three of the first four songs are much like Japancakes previous works, just done at one-quarter the speed. Two will be enjoyable to anyone into the Japancakes sound: "And Begun" features a short psychedelic phrase from the lap steel repeated over and over again, and "Handguns and Firearms" throws a little bit more in the mix and is a bit more uptempo and melodic. The third, however, is just bad. "Always Stuck With Leaving" sounds like the 10 second introduction to a country ballad stretched into an infinitely long song. The song is traditional in style, incredibly bland, and hard to endure; perhaps the band's worst song to date.
While the band's music has always been instrumental and fairly innocuous, one could never really classify it as soundtrack music. Perhaps it was too innocuous to be soundtrack music. For Belmondo, though the band has two attempts at creating such music which are pretty successful. The first is appropriately titled "Theme for a Film." What film? Pretty much anything set in the 1930s featuring people in suits would do (or anything film noir). A character that is good in heart is forced into doing something evil, and this music plays while he commits his crime and then recoils emotionally afterwards. "Another" is far less traditional, but it still classifies as soundtrack music; in fact, the recent work it reminds me of most is Low's The Exit Papers EP in that it is atmospheric but also gritty and, at times, harsh as the strings create abrasive, jolting tones.
Considering everything said above—the slowing down of Japancakes formula, the soundtrack fodder reminiscent of Low's attempt at the genre, etc., etc.—one would expect that a song entitled "Duluth 75" that is a lot more "rock and roll" would end up being an apt attempt at recreating Low. It is not.
Admittedly, Japancakes formula has gotten more and more tired with each release. A Bliss Out release shouldn't be seen as a magic cure all to stagnation, so the bright spots on Belmondo due to the experimentation in style are welcome but don't save the band.
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