Blogarhythms

Astute readers may have noticed I often base my posts around some sort of theme. I’m fond of this format because it affords me the opportunity to cover more music, ties whatever bands I write about neatly together by relating them to my life the realm of popular culture, and leaves little room for declarations of radical fanboy hyperbole like “OMG, this band totally melted my face off!” Which isn’t to say I don’t find myself sitting at my computer with my headphones on thinking just that as I type up a post on occasion. But I think the “internet speak” and “best… band… ever… ” exaggerations are best left relegated to instant messages.

That said, I sometimes get so psyched about a particular artist that I’m tempted to throw the whole format out the window and fawn all over them like only a blogger (or a teenage girl with a LiveJournal page) is capable of. A Toronto, Canada-based inter-ethnic duo called The Carps is just such an act, and their debut EP The Young and Passionate Days of Carpedia has pretty much melted my face off. Made up of Neil White on bass and synthesizer, and Jahmal Tonge on drums, guitar, MPC and vocals, The Carps are fundamentally a Post-Punk band, a designation that their stripped-down arrangements, driven by muscular basslines and pummelling drums, affirm. But Jahmal is as atypical a Punk vocalist as you’ll find, wearing his Soul and Pop influences on his sleeve and busting a Michael Jackson-meets-Lenny Kravitz whine in between requisite wails, shouts and screams. The result is something like Canadian Punk duo Death From Above 1979 fronted by Pharrell with synth input from Chad and DFA 1979’s Jesse Keeler in his MSTRKRFT guise. Or maybe Kenna if he was more enamoured of Punk than Pop?

The Days of Carpedia EP (which was recorded in Philadelphia’s Studio 215, a fact called to listeners’ attention on the opening track “Let’s Fall In Love”) dropped earlier this year on Canada’s Urbnet Communications (home of former Blogarhythms featuree Grand Analog) and is one of the year’s must-own releases. The aforementioned “Let’s Fall In Love” is a bass-heavy Disco-Punk jam which Jahmal warns “might be the rawest thing you’ve ever heard” before dedicating the track to Condoleeza Rice and Jean Chrétien. “The Tumultuous Adventures of JJ Iscariot and the Insatiable Booty Fantastic” (peep the Trackademicks remix on their MySpace) refits a “Bo Diddley” style beat with skuzzy guitar riffs, Neptunes-esque synths, and vaguely Afro-Latin percussion breakdowns. “Compton to Scarboro” is notable for it’s interpolation of Bell Biv DeVoe’s “Poison” intro, and an expertly-crafted narrative of desperation and crime. “All the Thugs I Know” finds Jahmal lamenting the state of modern Hip-Hop (”Hip-Hop, I loved you as a boy… Where have you gone?) and the glamorization of criminality over a sludgy downtempo groove with synths that might call to mind follow Canadian Rock act Rush’s classic “Tom Sawyer.” While “All the Damn Kids” is a riff-heavy party-time Punk-Rock vs. Classic-Rock era Metal locomotive dedicated to the band’s hometown.

Listen to “Let’s Fall In Love”

OMG!!! WTF?!?! MUST-OWN!!! Sorry…

-El Keter