Dan Friel

I've gotta hand it to the members of Parts and Labor; whether they're out on their own or stand combined like a chaos fueled Voltron they certainly have a knack for riding the line between noise and melody to its most fun conclusion. Much like his bandmate B.J. Warsaw's diversion into Shooting Spires, Friel's music echoes P&L's ragged pop brilliance but on Ghost Town he keeps things instrumental dragging frayed wires and busted electronics into the forefront of his sound and mixing them with tweaked beats and caffeinated keys. The record taps the same positive vibes and candy colored pulse that permeates much of Parts and Labor and despite its more minimal one man set-up its really a very dense record (though Friel makes it sound effortlessly fun). At times Ghost Town's flurry of static and sculpted beats sounds like throwing a wheelbarrow full of remote controlled toys headlong into a wood chipper, but where Friel succeeds over more sinister noiseniks is that the toys sound like they're having a blast in the process. Somehow Friel makes a pseudo-Western concept noise record end up sounding like the most memorable party of the year, and that in itself is a great accomplishment. Bonus marks to Friel for choosing Racoo-oo-oon's S.D. Reed to design the artwork. His work with Night People tapes has consistently created some of my favorite album artworks of the last couple years.

Download:
[MP3] Dan Friel - Ghost Town (pt. 1)
[MP3] Dan Friel - Buzzards

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE