Warmduscher – At the Hotspot
Warmduscher tone down their mania for an album of disco-funk and lyrical irreverence, produced by Hot Chip duo Al Doyle and Joe Goddard
Warmduscher welcome us back into their weird and sketchy world as expected, with the spoken-word title track from 'Tramp-pa' inviting all the 'little piggies' to the Hotspot, followed by a loungey instrumental overloaded with non-sequiturs, like Mac DeMarco if he went full Beckett instead of just being kooky.
This album is a lot more chilled than previous efforts, due in no small part to the production of Hot Chip's Joe Goddard and Al Doyle. This makes for a spacey, disco vibe (Wild Flowers, Super Cool), though there's still time for some harder-hitting rockers (Hot Shot, Double Vision). Twitchin' in the Kitchen splits the difference with a frenetic, energised vocal and a loping, funky arrangement – complete with a schoolyard chant for a chorus.
Clams Baker Jr has a few stylistic modes; sometimes he's David Berman spouting nonsense instead of poetry, sometimes Mark 'E' Everett delivering noisebox irony, but you never know if you're gonna get shithousery ('Baby toe Joe, king of the road!') or a perfectly rendered bit of subversion: 'Everybody's laughing because they don't want to drown in tears... of joy'.
The madcap experience of Warmduscher is still probably best on the stage, but this album goes some way to proving that given a little time to let their ideas gestate, they can actually produce something that sounds good on the stereo, as well as the back room of a pub.
Listen to: Fatso, Wild Flowers