Dandy Jack and the Junction SM: Los Siete Castigos
Perlon

Chilean-born Martin Schopf spent many years living in Berlin before relocating to Switzerland, his current home—an itinerant background that suggests one explanation for the stylistically diverse sound so eloquently nurtured on his Dandy Jack Perlon debut Los Siete Castigos (“the seven punishments”). In “Chuleta For You,” Schopf works a tantalizing cocktail of timbales, shakers, and brightly whooping flares into a rapturous Latin-electro-techno strut. Mournful synth melodies pine for days spent riding the Trans-Europe Express during the equally memorable “Globe Trottel.” Littered with choruses of crazed croaks, the funk-house dyad “Arabs in the Dessert” resembles a nightly gathering at the local swamp while the squelchy stunner “Casper House” shoots radiant synth boomerangs through rush hour asteroid belts. Late tracks like “Samba Lübeck” and “Guerra De Las Estrellas” inhabit clubbier territory with the focus on run-on grooves (all but one of the hour-long disc's tracks stretch out to eight or nine minutes) though even here there's enough tasty detail to keep chin-strokers happy. Los Siete Castigos is prototypical Perlon splendour from Ricardo Villalobos's Ric y Martin partner.

February 2006