Tuesday, February 1, 2022

HIFIKLUB + BOSSINI & GARWOOD: LAST PARTY ON EARTH

To be the last in any venue is, in essence, to be the first, with a means to carve an individualistic trail and see it through. 

Last Party on Earth. a concept compilation by the ensemble group, Hifiklub, as joined by Jason-Michel Bossini and Duke Garwood, defines one's legendary choices in compositions that placate and pound in their layered scopes, some of which spring from instruments and others, restful vocalization. 

The album's eponymous entry comes late in the album's aesthetic queue, but it encrypts the varied, tempting tonality of all that comes before and after it, thus pushing the grand, thematic punctuation to a satisfying pinnacle. 

One accompanying cluster (albeit dispersed separately among the others) is monster-ized: "Calling the Toad", which invokes something out of the 3D Maze, though prelude-ish and serene; "Smile Like a Reptile" (a Psycho/Bernard Herrmann buildup that slips into the swampy depths); and "Ancestors in Stone" (a stately, old-school-sounding invasion of the golem kind). I imagine that one could also call "Lake Of Tears" such an entry, for its texture alludes to something majestic yet sinister, as it seems to stem from a woeful, downtrodden place (a graveyard, perhaps, or maybe a sequestered chamber within such). 

Other Last Party tracks move like the wind, whistling with both fruitful and fruitless persistence: "Dunes of Worthless Gold" (a doddering lullaby that welcomes empty elation); "Eye of the Road" (a hosting toast for any easy-riding pursuit); and "Bitter Beautiful" (a soft, pretty hook, that once granted, skips to a virulent tryst). 

"Deep in the Sun" is arguably the most basking of the album's wonders (a warm, stewing string of salvation), while "Lake of Trees" spreads like psychedelic butter, though at the same time filtered through Aaron Copeland and KISS. "Easy Up Slow Down" is a idyllic-horned way to settle one's stomach before a ripe, Rip Van Winkle snooze, but "Bubba Linguist" takes an evening ease to a whole new, pastoral level: rural and unpretentious in its sweeping shades and virile vocals (perhaps my favorite track of all). 

 

Last Party is a creation that springs simultaneous lows and highs, as one opens one's ears (and inebriated mind) to the last(ing) promise of makeshift nirvana. 

Follow Last Party's audio trails at

https://subsoundrecords.bandcamp.com/album/last-party-on-earth

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