Lässig! Supercool! Empfehlenswert!
Merke gerade, die sind aus Toronto, vor meinem geistigen Auge sind das Australier - oder sogar Neuseeländer! Die drei Länder sind aber in meinem Buch ehwieso das Triumvirat der Coolness.
Am 12. August 2022 werden KIWI JR. ihr drittes Album "Chopper" veröffentlichen. Das Album, das neben der Leadsingle "Night Vision" auch die Highlights "Unspeakable Things", "The Sound of Music" und "The Extra Sees the Film" enthält, wurde in Toronto von Sub Pop-Labelkollege Dan Boeckner (Wolf Parade, Handsome Furs, Operators) aufgenommen und produziert. "Chopper" ist der Nachfolger des 2021 erschienenen zweiten Albums "Cooler Returns", über das Pitchfork schrieb:
"Sardonische Erzählungen und spöttische Bemerkungen...eine ungeduldige, slacker-rockige Vorstellung eines Folk-Albums....einige Akkorde erklingen mit George Harrison-Glanz, während andere so zottelig und ungestüm sind wie The Clean - selten koexistieren Hi-Fi und Lo-Fi-Pracht so harmonisch."
Smash cut to Kiwi Jr.'s third album, Chopper, overseen by trusted pilot Dan Boeckner (Wolf Parade, Handsome Furs) on storied Sub Pop Records. Turning nocturnal with necks mock turtle, our Local Kiwi Jr. takes neon flight off the digital cliff - like The Monkees starring in Blade Runner; like Michael Mann directs Encino Man. Ten songs with synth shimmer, zen gongs with yard strimmer. The signs along the highway read “LESS BAR, MORE NOIR AHEAD.” Ah, those late summer, Joe Strummer, Home on the Range Rover Blues.
There's a melancholy to all forms of flight, and the view out the Chopper is as hazy as it gets: mission-oriented, both stealth and self-realized. This album is decidedly (yet almost secretly) anti-patio-sunscreen-Beach Boys bachelor cruise sing-a-long. Sure, these songs let a little light through the blinds, but they sting insomnia, corrupt mayors, Kennedy Curses, sex tapes, and deer rifles. Chopper is the bird's eye view of the big event - a real nighttime character of oil stain, film grain, search light, night flight. It is muscular and fragile; loud yet quiet: both an observer and somehow the observed spectacle itself.
What was slack in the slacker phase, got tauter, with lacquer glaze. Slick gloss, rightened wrongs; murdered boss, promoted pawns. With Boeckner transmitting high-voltage shocks upon every reach for a familiar instrument, Kiwi Jr. expands the palette with string machine song, synthesizered oblong, and Dentyne Classic Menthol vocals from area soprano Dorothea Paas (US Girls, Badge Epoch Ensemble) like the missing piece all along.
Kiwi Jr. brings the Chopper to a new space, demilitarizing the technology just like flasks, aviators, and cargo shorts. Graceful in the air above, but when the Chopper lands, there's chaos on the ground. Kiwi Jr. shout, “Look Out!” When it gets close, it'll blow the hat right off of your head.
Hold onto your hats, Babies.
