Today we are pleased to premiere ‘Life’ by Catz ‘n Dogz, taken from their forthcoming ‘Moments’ album on Pets Recordings – a chime-heavy, slo-mo chugger that’ll get your feels on alert.
“We were listening to a lot of old trip hop…. favourite albums from when we were growing up, like Common’s ‘Be’ produced by Kanye West or old St. Germain albums. For us it sounds like a life soundtrack.” ‘Moments’ is release June 26. A review of ‘Moments’ by Jack Harman follows below.
We live in the quick.
Our lives have been hurtling into the future at ever faster speeds, as we click, collect, like, share, comment and post ourselves into a new human aesthetic. Our documentation is as fleeting as our ever-diminishing attention spans. We take photos we never look at and Insta stories we forget to tell. Records like ‘Moments’ by Polish duo Catz N’ Dogz (Grzegorz Demiañczuk & Wojciech Tarañczuk) are how we are afforded artefacts that articulate and shape the experience. It’s the modus operandi of all artists to be the both the expressors and archivists of the human condition.
Trip-hop, deep house, downtempo, autotuned vocals, jazz keys, trap’s pristine programming, and a cornucopia of superb guest singers (standout Heather Chelan was found on Soundcloud) give the album broad pluralistic vision: one that tallies with how we now experience music. The algorithms say try this, then try that… and we are fine with it, as is wont.
‘Moments Feat. Angie Nowak’ brings to mind the Paranoia of Chance the Rapper and SELA’s chopshop of Broken II. Almost twitchy, almost glitchy but playfully rubbed out to soften the edges. ‘Listen’ continues the strong vocals theme of the record: dashboard confessionals do call and response with reverb washed woodwind and plaintive guitars. ‘Love’ brings to mind the sharp as fuck kick-snare programming of Devon’s Brain Rays on his lost cassette magnus opus ‘Music for Abandoned Beach Parties’ the pads and guitars gently pulse like the dying embers of the gathering. ‘Memories’ remembers House music. Remembers Mike Huck. Remembers pitching it to -6 to see how deep you can go with things just fatten out a little bit. It’s Kenny warming up for Kenny. Over on ‘Sleep Feat. Demetrius’ somnambulant basslines and slumbering guitars are rudely awakened by playful pitch shifting synths and the autotuned lullaby vocals. Jaw lends his vocals to ‘Time’ for a stretched House workout and ‘It’s OK’ follows the head nodding into foot movement.
Closing track ‘Tomorrow’ really is a track for these times. The yearning, the desire – something that we have all felt in these most troubling of times – for the cherished moments that are so special. The dance, the dreams, the deep, deep love.
‘Moments’ is a record that confidently straggles the duality of the times we live in. How we look back at how things were, and how we look forward to the future. The programming, the instrumentation, the vocals all balances delicately upon this fault line, and whilst the uncertainties still plague us all, ‘Moments’ shows us that high art can never be suppressed.
(Jack Harman)
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