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Javelin's No Mas presents 15 handmade jams that might not get the party started, but should at least sustain the hazy sunshine of 2009's "Deadbeat Summer" through summer 2010.
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For the most part, the cutesiness is kept just controlled enough to make the songs intriguing.
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The duo are clever producers. The album doesn't have the lopsided minimalism that's typical with the collage approach. Percussion is only as crisp as the leads and fills the spectrum evenly.
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While the album's unique collage of what seems like vintage sounds will prompt endless "is that a sample?" debates amongst crate diggers, the pure joy offered by just listening will hopefully reveal those arguments for what they are-beside the point.
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Javelin know what they're good at, where they stand, and they aren't trying to shove their knowledge and musical interests in their listeners faces. Instead, they let them find it for themselves by picking up on bits and pieces and carrying them forward, focusing on what interests them without having to worry about what they don't.
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Javelin's best tracks may hold up under professional production in a year where many a group's cassette-tape flaws will likely sabotage similar leaps, but trading in their boombox for a proper stereo isn't necessarily an upgrade.
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Apparently, No Más is completely sample free, with every sound painstakingly worked on to make it sound like it came from an old sample. It's this kind of logic that makes No Más an oddly compelling listen, in the sense that you're never quite sure whether what you're hearing is amazing or awful.
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Javelin don't yet possess the same kind of wit and invention of their most obvious forbearers, but there's enormous potential here, and the biggest compliment that can be paid to No Más is that it will sound best when reduced down to an audio tape and shoved into one of the boomboxes that Langford and van Buskirk so slavishly worship.
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Under The RadarThis tenuous house of musical cards may be scotch-taped together, but it's the exhilarating feeling that it might fold in on itself at any moment that renders it so compelling. [Spring 2010, p.70]
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It's mellow, maybe a little too mellow, but the duo seems to be okay with that. And although the layout of the tracks flows in and out of consciousness and doesn't really take the record anywhere specific, it is considerably cohesive.
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On their second release No Mas, cousins George Langford and Tom Van Buskirk stake their claim in the world of electronica with an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach, yielding infectious but often mind-boggling results.
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The duo can't possibly keep up this kind of frivolous pace, and several of the 15 tracks are just (and I apologize for using the term) chillwave jams--but nearly all are expertly crafted, and hedged with mirthy dance flavor.
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Dec 21, 2010In lengthening the song lengths and trimming the tracklist, No Mas jettisons the spontaneous, off-the-cuff energy that made their debut so incredibly fun.
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No Más has three-fifths as many tracks in the same amount of time [as Jamz n Jemz], and for the most part, each track outstays its welcome.