Spod
Superfrenz
12 Track, LP (2008, Valve Records)
Related: Spod.
You can read the full story behind Spod's second album here and it may help to get a handle on this, his second LP.
Despite the various setbacks that one-man-music-machine Brent Griffin ran into, the mood here is light and joyous. It's a superfrenzy full of friends – and he has lots of ‘em, and lots of ideas. There's a light touch and sense of fun here that a few other outfits could learn something from. There’s sex too, but never anything too sleazy.
Forget any preconceptions you may have about what an album made in a bedroom studio on a computer might sound like. Superfrenz doesn’t even feel like a solo record, let alone one made with the help of so much technology. And it's predominantly all played. If there are any song samples here they are completely unobtrusive.
Spod really does throw it all in the mix, and yet the sampled meows, video game bleeps and steel-band sounds of 'Cats' segues into the messy fuzzed-up rap of 'Time Maggots' in a way that sounds completely natural in context. But that context really only exists on this CD – and maybe in Spod's head.
There's some frantic power pop in 'Norx' which sees our hero getting all panting and excited while reclaiming a long neglected bit of slang. This is one for schoolies week with its roll call of the favorably endowed: “Halle Berry, Pamela Lee, Dolly Parton, Angelina Jolie.” Spod’s a bit unconvincing, however, when he goes for the bad-boy stuff. Sweeter things like 'Make U Sweat' or the CD-only bonus track, '... bodytalk', are smooth slices of gentle yet insistent funk that ring much truer.
And yeah, I guess most of it sounds like you could (and should) make ringtones out of the choruses. But is that such a bad thing?
by Trevor Block
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