Music, Record Reviews

New EP: Mason Proper, Short Hand

Posted by: Ryan Allen on April 11, 2008 at 5:00 pm

masonproper1b.jpg
Mason Proper, Short Hand EP (Dovecote Records, 2008)

Listen: “Bonemen”
[audio:http://www.detour-mag.com/audio/Bonemen.mp3]

You can’t write a simple pop song anymore. The days of plugging a shitty guitar into a shittier amp, throwing together a couple of chords and yelling about President Reagan are long gone. Nowadays artists pimp their homestudios with robot hearts. Blame ProTools. Blame Apple. Blame Radiohead. Blame boredom. New pop exists in a different world: harder, better, faster, stronger.

Mason Proper is one of these bands. Their sixth member is the studio, where Playstation 3 attack noises burst in on their otherwise accessible rock songs like an angry mother catching her son jerking off. But despite the chaotic pace, Mason Proper are masters of dynamics, re-imagining every verse, chorus, and melody as a different character in a particular song’s evolving story. And on this short, four-song EP, their inner Nigel Godrich runs wild. The smooth, almost Maroon 5-esque funk chords that propel “Bonemen” are swiftly mangled by guitar feedback that sounds like Nirvana covering Wolf Eyes. “Friendship” begins all “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds,” only to become the best unheard Radiohead B-side since “Punchdrunk Lovesick Singalong.” It’s all paranoid pop for a fucked up future. Just don’t forget to pay off that new MacBook. — Ryan Allen

[tags]Mason Proper, Short Hand, Radiohead, ProTools, Wolf Eyes, Nirvana, Maroon 5[/tags]

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