Tracing the sound of Jamie Stewart's mind deviating further from the tracks of convention has proven pleasingly unpleasant of late – were the
Xiu Xiu man to veer off any further into musical dementia you suspect someone may have to start supervising his every session.
Always was deranged enough, although
recent Kingfisher Bluez track Quagga pushed the envelope ever further into the realms of the irrefutably weird. Continuing his penchant for one-off 7"s, here's Lil What's Your Problem, a cutting from Stewart's contribution to
Graveface Records' Charity Subscription Series. And if you were perchance wondering, yup – it's even more mental than its predecessor. Breeding a pulsating videogame torment, its unintelligible gargles, marrow-quaking squawks, and infrequent dashes of music make out like Stewart's depositing dismembered hunks of brain piece by piece into the agape jaws of a blood-red postbox: the archetype of the place of no return. There may be no return to normality for Stewart now, and that's a monumental good thing as far as I'm concerned. For in channeling the challenging, the avant-pop guardian has become entirely indispensable as a contemporary artist.
Proceeds go to sex ed organisation
Planned Parenthood.
