Buffalo Daughter
I
Emperor Norton
Easily one of the best albums of the year right here. Buffalo Daughter is a threesome from Japan – two women, one man – who make all kinds of beautiful, heartbreaking, funky, stranged-out noise with their guitar and bass and turntables and intertwining voices. Their first two records to be released here, Captain Vapour Athletes and New Rock, gave some kind of indication about what they were capable of, but here is where they step out on their own with what I’m gonna go ahead and call a masterpiece of freaky pop bliss. Quote that, Emperor Norton people.
I is one of those records that could only have come from people who think way too much about music. SuGar Yoshinaga and Yumiko Ohno float those harmonies like nobody’s business, from the opening la-la-la track “Ivory” to their very Veruca Salty thing on “Volcanic Girl.” (Actually, wasn’t that a Veruca Salt song for real?) And there’s funky techno stuff (“Discotheque du Paradis”) and Radiohead-on-estrogen stuff (“Robot Sings”) and sweet little experimental stuff (“I Know”) and long slow ballad stuff (“Mirror Ball”) and Led Zeppelin riffstuff (“Earth Punk Rockers”) and I could go on and on.
Look: if you’re logging on to ink19.com, it’s because you want to find out about music that is both interesting and sounds good, stuff that rocks like a beast and pushes the occasional boundary. (I’m just guessing, here, but I think I’m right.) Well, people, this is that music. I is a really impressive accomplishment, and it sounds good in my car. What the hell else do you need?
Buffalo Daughter: http://www.buffalodaughter.com
