Everyone has That Friend. He eats your food, fast. He puts his feet on your couch without thinking. He fucks your daughter/wife/dog with a jackhammer cock, often in one sitting. Needless to say, as a friend, he’s in need of a major wake-up call, one that you can’t bring yourself to deliver. Why? Because he’s That Friend; the dynamic of your relationship is long-established and impossible to break, and the chance that you’ll actually do anything about his exploits is next to nil.
Edward Ka-Spel is, for me, That Artist. Ever since stumbling upon a Legendary Pink Dots album, I’ve been Ka-Spel’s bitch. Not because I want to be, but because I have enabled myself to be after imbibing enough of his work to let the smaller details slide, if not bigger ones too.
It makes total sense, then, that I would find Dream Logik, Pt. 2 a fitting, enjoyable addition to the Pink Dots/Ka-Spel canon, and I do. But something tells me listeners in general — unlike those of recent LPD album Plutonium Blonde, which boasts a more diverse, friendly sound — won’t be able to latch onto these tunes. Left-field respect (and little else) is a given with a performer like Ka-Spel, and this twice-baked collection of cracker-jack symphonies won’t end that streak.
So what’s the problem, asshole? (Is that what you’re thinking? Good.) Well, I don’t have a problem, per se, but for once in my life I’m going to find the strength to find fault with That Artist in hopes that the turbulence will strengthen our relationship. (Just go with it, people.)
And so it goes: Dream Logik, Pt. 2 is so cold, clammy, and clinical that you need gloves to listen to it. The long expanses of nothing but tittering drone-synth will drive you apeshat after a spell, and the non-grooves you thought sounded cool during the first few minutes get much, much lamer after 10. The droves of alien samples and flourishes are a nice touch, but they’re coupled with very little, save more effects.
“The Modest Ambitions of Cedric the Centipede” and “Under the Junction” buck the staid trend with added bits of percussion and generally more chaos to chew on, and the former is admittedly spectacular in its ascension to heavenly disarray. But the latter is shiftless enough to miss its own recording session. And there you have it: me, finally standing up for myself, finally saying ENOUGH IS ENOUGH in the case of Dream Logik, Pt. 2...that is, until the next Ka-Spel-affiliated release. By then, I’ll probably be a blubbering bitch again.
More about: Edward Ka-Spel
