Metamodern Skank

Strange Flesh dubbed up by StinkyJim to get your week off to a rousing start.

Sometimes all you need is a mailshot to flag up something that you would otherwise have missed, hurtling down the music highway, pedal to the floor, eyes fixed on the horizon ahead.

 

StinkyJim's email on Bandcamp Friday resulted in a trio of purchases: Tibilin Sound's Love Light EP featuring a StinkyJim remix, the Boomarm Nation Family Album 2024 which includes a StinkyJim original; and then the Very EP by duo Strange Flesh, straight out of Brooklyn, New York.

 

More of the other two at a later date, this one warrants a post all of it's own.

 

Very is described as "the anthem of a woman on her own deliciously precarious path: the soundtrack to beloved but ill-paying employment, discount decadence, no children, and a healthy disregard for the future." Varrick Zed's sprechsang vocals bounce over a Ed Zed's wobbling synth lines and clattering percussion to great effect. 

 

The first of two remixes is by Digital Equipment Co., which a little internet digging reveals is Zerstorte Zelle, which in turn is unearthed as an alias of fellow Brooklynite (and co-producer of their EP) Arthur Fleischmann. The "Instruction Set Architecture Edit" is 3-minutes of stuttering, chopped up sounds, Varrick's vocals cut and pasted together but more or less intact.

The real treat is saved for last though, with StinkyJim aka James Needham's Scented Showcase Very-Fied Version offering up over eight minutes of perfectly pitched New Zealand skank, which frankly could go on for eight hours without overstaying its welcome. 

 

The Very EP came out in July 2023, a few days before StinkyJim's excellent Social Awareness remix album, which featured a reciprocal rework of On The Ag by Strange Flesh.

 

Strange Flesh have been releasing music since September 2020, though I've discovered that Varrick and Ed Zed were previously The Casual Sexists from 2015 to 2021, overlapping but presumably making way for Strange Flesh in the last few years. 

 

There's plenty to explore by The Casual Sexists at a later date, generally mining a similar vein of jerky electro pop with dubby B-sides (including a few sides by Tribilin Sound and Wrongtom) but I'll leave you with this unexpected cover version, available as a name your price/free download.