A twisted, hazy, psychedelic dream turned nightmare, but it’s one that I wouldn’t mind becoming recurring.
2012, Self-Released
7.8 / 10.0
This album as well as the artist is a mystery, and I’m beginning to feel this is all a dream. Tyler Keene’s solo project, Log Across The Washer has a similar bizarreness to that of “Yellow Submarine”, and will instantly draw out Beck comparisons. But scrolling through Welcome To The Afternoon‘s track listing has done enough to wash away any remaining thoughts of unoriginality. “Carry Me Home In A Shimmery Apocalypse”, “City Street Lights With Tacos and Beer on The Porch In Portland”, and “Shredding Heads of Baby Dolls” aren’t exactly your typical titles. The track names alone are enough to push the most pretentious and strict music critic into a wry smile, and they’ve certainly won me over.
Welcome To The Afternoon is an aptly named choice for the album title, as the record induces thoughts of hazy ’60s afternoons with an underlying level of ’90s nostalgia. Each track melds into the following in a dream-like sequence. Fitting with the record’s “Follow the White Rabbit” personality, album opener “Alice” kicks off proceedings with a thumping beat and nightmarish accordion. Inevitably, Log Across the Washer will get Beck comparisons with songs in the twisted shapes of psychedelic freak outs like “Jackson Bilger Eats Bubblegum” and “Young Years’ Morning Death March”. And of the aforementioned “Death March”, (despite a 20 second moment of wondrous beauty 2 minutes 40 seconds in) will induce a hangover. There’s no avoiding it. There’s experimental and then there’s nails on chalkboard suicidal, yet despite me wanting to stab myself in the ears, a track like this even offers more character to an album brimming with it.
Despite its sheer madness and psychedelic freak outs, there’s a true experimentalism to this record to compete with modern experimentalists Kasabian and even Radiohead. As enjoyable this colourful experimentalism is, the listener needs a respite, and Keene is fully aware of this by slowing proceedings down with “The Radio Band With Violet Shadow”. The album follows the aforementioned track’s suit, yet it’s only when we’re provided with “DeGrasse” that Welcome To The Afternoon truly shows its scope. “DeGrasse” is beautifully slow with minimal lyrics with every note and instrument having an identity and purpose, creating a lullaby for adults. A humble press release states “Sounds built from a foundation of lo-fi textural elements, [have] molded into waves of slightly pleasant popular music”. Slightly pleasant? More like a twisted, hazy, psychedelic dream turned nightmare, but it’s one that I wouldn’t mind becoming recurring.
Purchase: Log Across The Washer – Welcome To The Afternoon
