Bitchin' Bajas

Cooper Crane and co. answer back quickly on their Krausend 12" from earlier in the year with a full length for Drag City that expands further into the floating synth stained ether while treading into bouts of space blues laced guitar. They've shaved away much of the rhythm that pocked this year's earlier release and instead harkened back to a realm of overlapping tones that lap against one another and make for the kind of binaural headphone splendor that the Bajas have built their catalog upon. Each tone and microtone rub against the tide and flow of their songs lighting up brilliant moments that make the tiny hairs in listeners' ears stand at attention and then relax into the flow of... wait is that flute fluttering underneath "Inclusion"? And that's where the record becomes a much bigger statement than the Bajas have constructed before. They've always been at the forefront of the synth pack but here they've got their sights on something bigger; from the dust bowl guitar to the flute trills, the album plays like the soundtrack to a panoramic nature film. Made more impressive is that the band recorded much of the synth in a purposely complicated process akin to pioneers of splice and edit technique. The original sources were recorded to two machines, spliced into loops, then mixed together with live playing for an analog experience that's not often undertaken in an age when most technology will approximate the results with the push of a plugin. Bitchtronics ends up more than just the sum of a complicated process though, its cinematic, lush and otherworldly while retaining a sense of tactile wonder that seeps through the speakers. Its ambition pushed and succeeded, forming a record that would stand easily in the stead of those it seeks to emulate.

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