J-Sin @ Smother.net
Excelsior stuffing this is not. Never bland, never predictable, this is the type of improvisational indie apartment lo-fi rock that would get the most abstract of music listeners intrigued. While it never quite yields melody for dissonance or abstraction, these eight songs are indeed quite depth for what sounds like an 8-track recording. “Some Other Time” has him singing an almost lullaby overtop of a nice little break and strummed bass. Certainly won’t be selling multi-platinum but when you’re on a CD-R label the expectation is a tad lower while at the same time the expectations for innovation is much larger than normal. It’s that expectation that is not only met head-on but crushed like a beer can on a drunk’s forehead—for evidence look at the weird stop-happy screwy tempo of “Speak From Shattered Faces”, which convinces us that not all music must be for everyone.



Jeff Marsh @ Delusions of Adequacy
Chicago native Jesse Thomas is one of those home recorders who makes lo-fi music the way it's meant to sound. In other words, screw gloss and precision; maintain a sense of experimentation and improvisation, and keep that kind of bedroom fuzz that makes even the worst song sound comforting and endearing. Improvisation is the key word for Excelsior Effort, an eight-track EP of home-recorded music that's a little catchy, a little funky, and always intriguing.

The components of guitar, beats, samples, and synths are pretty typical for the home-recording musician, but Thomas makes the songs feel fresh through his improvised feel. Because of this, a song may go from slow and subtle to something upbeat and almost danceable, evoking images of Sebadoh one moment and Trans Am the next. And while few tracks here blow me away, taken as a whole the album is a fun dose of experimentation, all awash in the sort of subtle lo-fi buzz that makes the album feel special.

The opening track, "From the Top of the Awesome," is my favorite. Stark acoustic guitar with hints of modulation plays, with electric guitar coming over top, then some synths, then the beats, and the whole thing maintains this subtle vibe, a kind of groove that's immediately endearing. "Some Other Time" is a Her Space Holiday-like pop song, with vocals mixed low in the mix and catchy beats, and "Rain on My Parade" is a subtle ballad, a bit dreamy with gentle acoustic guitar contrasting the more evident beats. There's a nice, sweet vibe underneath the much more dreamy feeling "Pink Umbrella." A few tracks feel too loose, such as the garagey "Speak from Shattered Faces" and "Semi Permanent" with its 80s synths and over-emphasis on the basslines. But such short attempts can be forgiven here.

This is a cute little 3-inch EP, over quick enough to make it a fun listen without feeling overwrought or pretentious. I get the sense that Thomas is anything but pretentious. With silly lyrics and a loose style, his music is lighthearted and simple yet catchy and warm. If this was 40 minutes, I might have trouble taking it, but in an EP-worthy dose, it's just right!



Shorty @ Shmat
Look. I try to be impartial when it comes to CD cover and booklet design. Should be separate from the music, right? But so often, the CD-Rs we get are the visual equivalent of those shirts. You know. The ones that say, "Grandma went to Puerto Vallarta and all I got was this lousy T-shirt". I got one CD-R the other day wrapped in a dirty NAPKIN. For crying out loud. So, I can't help it. Keep Recordings makes that extra effort to make things special for their limited CD-R line. The high quality designs are all spectacularly inventive and fun. Starts you off on the right foot, ya know?

So back to the music. This is Jesse Thomas's Excelsior Effort CD. In general, not as immediately arresting songcraft-wise as some of the other Keep artists. But very, very inventive. Tends toward the electronic at times. Only 8 songs here for a total of a little over 20 minutes of airtime. The first two tracks, "From The Top Of The Awesome" and "Free 'Zines", are instrumental splatterings of strange beats and alien sounding keyboards. Music for outerspace travellers perhaps. Like protracted studies in Attention Deficit Disorder, the two pieces caper around through various indie styles, with a heavy hand on the metronome slider.

The first vocals appear on the third track, "Some Other Time", which is very reminiscient of older Folk Implosion. Half mumbled, monotonic phrases wangle their way around drum machine beats. I was rather taken by "Speak From Shattered Faces" which merges the bassline from the Beatles' "Taxman" with the irreverence of The Fall. "Rain On My Parade" is a bluesy sort of drudge and "Semi Permanent" is Beat Happening meets Badly Drawn Boy. The latter song contains those same slightly out-of-tune vocals that are somewhat thankfully minimal on the album. No slam against the wiggly pipes, of course. But I think it was wise to keep them out of the limelight most of the time. I also wasn't too much into that fat, northwestern-grunge guitar in "Knonopin Almighty". Eek. I could probably could do without that one. "Pink Umbrella" continues where "Rain On My Parade" left off, but is even slower and just as moody. Kinda muzaky at times. In general, I'd like to hear more song-things as opposed to inventive noises which the album already has in spades. But this is quite an auditory experience for adventurous listeners.



Brad Rose @ Foxy Digitalis
This is a bit of a different release from the excellent Keep Recordings. Aside from the wonderful packaging, this doesn't remind me of anything else they've done. Jesse Thomas constructs songs from a variety of drum loops, guitars, and his voice. On these eight short songs he tries out numerous styles. All of this is pretty lofi, and I think it'd be served better in a higher quality setting. That being said, Thomas is a good songwriter. He has a good sense of melody and writes some really catchy stuff. "From the Top of the Awesome" opens the album and is the best offering. Quickly strummed guitar starts it out as bass fades in slowly. But this song gets a swift kick in ass when the muddled breakbeat sneaks in. I can't help but bob my head - this is great stuff. It's an instrumental track, but at just over two minutes it works perfectly. Another high point is "Semi Permanent," which matches funk-inspired bass with a casio beats. It's another catchy song. In fact, most everything on here is catchy. Overall, "Excelsior Effort" is a quality debut, and though it's sometimes inconsistent, it's definitely worth a listen. I expect his next effort will be superb.



Matt Dornan @ Comes with a Smile
Issue #15: SUMMER 2004
Chicago resident Jesse Thomas crams eight tracks into his twenty minutes, an exercise in cut'n'paste, lo-fi introversion that sounds like a redux Folk Implosion, albeit one mostly devoid of Lou Barlow's intrinsic musicality. "Speak From Shattered Faces" feeds The Lapse through a cheap speaker with a garage-rock guitar riff and a spastic trumpet for company, before the dirty, fuzzed-up funk of "Knonopin Almighty" kicks in. Elsewhere elements of dub, post-rock and electronica seep into the equation, making for a complex, puzzling brew.