Field Tapes in der Trash

Mourning [A] BLKStar co-founders LaToya Kent and RA Washington conceived Me:You as a divergence from their Cleveland-based collective. The alias suggests intense intimacy. Indeed, first result Field Tapes in der Trash emanates out of a heat haze with greater levels of sensuality, conflict, and companionship felt in Kents vocals and emphasis on person-to-person lyrics. Keyboardist, bassist, and sampling and loop specialist Washington adds to the mix only Jah Nada and Laura B., associates presumably responsible for increasing the noise quotient with the fiery and murky guitars (at the least; their roles are unspecified). While Field Tapes communicates directly to the mind and soul, as well as the body -- programmed and played drums crawl, stagger, and throttle through almost every song -- its as avant-garde as anything Kent and Washington have made before. Its silt-caked composite of poetry, electronics, and live instrumentation obscures the borders between soul, jazz, blues, funk, rock, and dub in a way that is very post-punk. (The lysergic collagist approach is reflected in the albums graphic likeness to Cabaret Voltaires The Voice of America.) Moreover, had Kent and Washington run out of ideas, an update of something by like-spirited early Funkadelic or Tricky, Keith Hudson, or King Midas Sound could have fallen into place without disrupting the mood. Kent sets it in the churning first song "Burns," summoning breathily with an imaginable wink, "Come with me -- I got a little magic in my pocket." She extends admiration and solidarity with sweetness in "Sun Zsu," a lurching house-adjacent track with slightly unsettling atmospheres: "Cherries in a bowl/You are beautiful/My sisters are close together." Pugilistic drums and whirling synthesizer accompany her on "Crawl on Yer Belly," an ecology lesson. After the first side ends with the solemn flicker of "Antiquity," the crew generate blasting motorik punk for a wailing Kent to confront a no-doubt startled subject about power dynamics. That energy continues into the defiant and fraught "Gimlet" ("You could be a ally -- but you dont know my skin") and bracing "Git Ready," then decelerates for the grim if motivational aftermath account "Portabelly." The title song, a proposed cease fire of sorts, finishes it off: "Lay down your weapons, my tongue is my knife." Spellbinding stuff, all of it. ~ Andy Kellman