Johnny Blackouts’ Boozehound EP is an orchestral stupor through dark city streets. It’s an ivory-suited John Travolta stepping out with his Saturday night swagger and a pocketful of psychedelic fever for the disco. Colors change with every footfall. Unsuspecting horns blare out of alleyways. Crumpled men nestled betwixt rusty trash cans raise their heads momentarily, spurting out humanity’s wrongdoings. But the walk continues just as it started - easy, undisturbed, embracing adventure around every corner. Johnny Blackouts’ Boozehound EP is flawlessly structured to complement a rich and heavy population of sounds, generating the bloodline of an animated metropolis.
Elevating in effect, “Broken" harmonizes organic, woody sounds with the whizzes and whirs of the future. Blackouts’ track is headstrong and undeniably rousing - an ideal accompaniment for the journey outward.
Walter Jones knows you want more woodblock. In his take of “Broken,” the DFA recording artist adds a sprinkle of boom-snap, neatly reigning the cornucopia of the original into a candy-covered Tootsie Roll center. Grand sweeps and key-filled crescendos heighten the Jones’ experience.
In “Topshelf,” red and blue lasers turn away from each other, slicing through the fog. There are ripped t-shirts and flashes of patent leather canvas purple eye shadows and hot pink cheek streaks. The white-clad outsider wipes the whiskey from the corners of his mouth, as a malformed David Lynch character does a sideways tip-toe across the room, and a saxophone laments in the distance. Chained together by a golden thread, “Topshelf” is a cinema of soundscapes.
Johnny Blackouts spares no expense when it comes to cerebral coitus. Laden with jarring samples and a frenzied tempo, “Skrewhead" ties up the Boozehound EP nicely. The peppy stroll around the way peaks with an intoxicating tempest of sounds…
Nick Warren - “This is excellent music. Will support.”
Mixmaster Morris - “Sparkly!”
Recloose - “The Walter Jones remix bumps!”
Q-Burns Abstract Message - “Totally down with ‘Broken.’ Rousing business for the dancefloor noggin.”
Fine Cut Bodies - “Love the dirty disco vibe.”
Mystic Rock (This Is Not An Exit) - “This is clearly tailor made for my night. Exotic, ecstatic, psychedelic, totally other.”
Acid Ted blog - “Brilliantly sprawling, cosmic, and epic.”
Additional support from Erol Alkan, Ajello, Rune Lindbæk, Sleazy McQueen, Gavin Hardkiss, Makossa & Megablast, Horse Meat Disco, Andy Ash, Dave Cosmonaut, and 6th Borough Project.
Available now from Juno Download and Beatport