The Lost Record (Colored Vinyl)＜限定盤＞

No one can honestly say that Ian Svenonius has ever lacked something to say and an interesting way to say it. And with his project Escape-Ism, he's given himself a format where he can present his thoughts relatively unfiltered, with Svenonius controlling the music as well as the lyrics, creating his own backing tracks using antiquated rhythm machines, keyboards, and cheap guitars. Svenonius' first Escape-Ism album, 2017's Introduction to Escape-Ism, was a clattery but fascinating exercise in low-tech electronic noisemaking, with the skeletal melodies providing a fine vehicle for his witty but sharply clever musings on the drawbacks of celebrating the past. The second Escape-Ism album, 2018's The Lost Record, sounds a bit more full-bodied thanks to the participation of a few guest musicians, but only just; this still sounds spare and full of space for Svenonius to move around in, though the added bass frequencies do make a difference. Musically, The Lost Record sounds more confident than the debut, likely because Svenonius had another year to work out his musical strategies, though the notion that less is more is still paramount here. As for Svenonius the singer and lyricist, he's a guy who never seems to run short of ideas, and from the title cut (the first-person story of an overlooked vinyl LP that finally finds an attentive listener) to the last (which ponders which sign of the zodiac would represent someone stitched together from several different bodies), this stuff manages to be funny, ominous, and full of ideas all at once. Svenonius' delivery is as idiosyncratic as his writing, sounding coolly mannered and passionately spontaneous, the elements fitting together like yin and yang. And while it's hard to imagine why he decided to re-record "Rome Wasn't Burnt in a Day" from Escape-Ism's debut, the version here does have a different personality, less buzzy and with noticeably more slink. The Lost Record is strong enough to suggest that Escape-Ism could be a project with real legs, and demonstrates Svenonius' continuing strength and imagination. ~ Mark Deming