Somewhere in New Orleans, amongst the whisky hovels and the whispers of ghosts, a zealous architect is tinkering with the instruments of perception. Methodically molding spings of molten malaise, twirling them around spider-limbed phalanges into blood-seeking projectiles, and discharging them in periodic bursts like a kettle full of hornets- Pink and Yellow is a designer of many a dissident wave. The latest missive from the swampy underbelly of the Big Nasty is coined Outside. Comprised of four tracks recorded at different stages over the past serval years, it is yet another deliberately brassy trespassing into the realm of electronic music, inducing a darkly enlightening incursion of industrial dance, doom metal, hip-hop, and the legacy of the blues, which begs one to question the arbitrary barriers that separate these fields of music outside of the specifically strident specimen of this album. "Digital Garden Walkway" swarms with scanning, sinewy basslines that pop and flex like the straining muscles of a living cadaver cursed to turn the gears of an enormous infernal machine by hand. "Get Away" feels like Boy Harsher supporting the coherence-leaking, neurotic busking attempt of a young Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, while "Never Heals" slithers and skitters through a sizzling and thorny shower of growling guitars and rusty, ill-threaded beats, echoing a horrorcore mix tape recorded in the belly of an abandoned abattoir. Not wanting to let you off the hook too easily, the EP leaves the listener with a final taste of despair on "Drive / Outside," a bubbling quicksand pit, that sucks you down into an airless chasm with ghastly, siren-shadow bassline and curving synth billhooks that get between your ribs and hold you in an afflicted embrace. Once you enter Pink & Yellow's keep, you will always find yourself estranged from the safe and ordinary.
* This month, I am writing an album review inspired by a different color every day. Today's color(s) pink and yellow inspired my review of Outside for reasons that should be self-evident. To be honest, one of the reasons I started challenging myself to write color-themed reviews was to goad myself into writing about one of Pink & Yellow's albums. Each one is really interesting and challenging in its own way, and I felt like I needed a theme to help lighten the burden of the writing process in order to give the artist their due on the blog. Now that one of my primary goals of the Spring Colors Challenge is completed, will I still see it through to the end of the month? Check back tomorrow to find out!
