Moon Pool + Dead Band on Cass Records

Got a couple new ones in last week from Cass Records, who have been chugging away since at least 2006? I'm thinking of an old Black Lips / Dirtbombs split, the Trachteneburg Family Slideshow Players or Lee Marvin Computer Arm. Really? Get with the program, they've been around since before 7Inches even existed. This is Ben Blackwell from Detroit with a hefty amount of writing and podcast experience in addition to putting his money where his mouth is, completely into the scene and a huge inspiration for 7Inches.

So I threw (carefully) this one from Moon Pool & Dead Band on the turntable this weekend.
I love this sleeve, super mysterious, like a freedom of information act document that's been censored, most of the cryptic info has been censored out...with minimal old typewriter font, blurry and double-struck on the reverse, printed directly on the paper 45 sleeve itself..... an old mystery, asking to be deciphered.

So the A-Side, 'Patsy', has a repeated hypnotic beat with a slightly glitchy solo synth electronic sound that works as the primary melody over those Daft Punky subsonic bass rhythms...it's pounding away... this understated beat, really giving it a chance to sink in, like a stereolab rough backing track, listen carefully because that slow change the beat is going through, isn't really happening. Learning this is from Detroit, it makes perfect sense...this sound is sort of those forgotten synth sounds, maybe a little less hip then the latest plug ins. It's like time stopped in this dark warehouse and this sound was left to evolve in it's own style vacuum. It's definitely sounding dark, like that angry dance that's a solo experience in the corner. The way the main back beat is buried, the last thing they're trying to do is move asses. It's the long decay of this techno house sound, either the far off last echo, or the first reemergence.
The B-Side, 'Patsy (Jack Ruby Version) sounds to get even lower, like hearing that breakdown section from LCD Soundsystem where they're playing across the street in the basement. It's all low bass beats, and muffled midrange. The Jack Ruby changes are subtle, maybe even making it more mysterious, and buried deeper in the layers of rubble, the main voices and melodies are now distinctively absent and it's like an experiment to see if this buried rhythm can still work.

Get this one from the rock that is Cass Records, releasing great packaging and bands since at least 2006. That's not their motto.

Moon Pool & Dead Band
MAMA-058 "Patsy" b/w "Patsy (Jack Ruby Version)
Oh shit! What happens when a dude from the Sights/SSM hooks up with one of the geniuses behind noise-mongers Wolf Eyes? Old-school Detroit techno jams, plain and simple. This single is MP&DB's debut on vinyl and the dirty danceable vibe is undeniable. Analog synthesizers and sequencers to the max. This may be just the thing Electrifyin' Mojo needs to hear to bring his ass out of retirement.