Oxykitten — Escape From New Amsterdam

Oxykitten is a fun synth project from Portland, OR. With a handful of cassettes released on Field Hymns over the past three years, Oxykitten adds another release to their catalog with Escape From New Amsterdam. My hatred for hipsters and their cassettes aside (though, the pics I saw of this tape are really cool), I'm glad they're doing their best to bring back the 80's. I don't mean when they dress like goofball extras from some never filmed breakdancing episode of Miami Vice, but with their love of fat synthesizers and movie soundtracks.

Escape From New Amsterdam is an obvious nod to John Carpenter's Escape From New York and does its best to capture the grit and feel of the film. "Springtime For The Dead" sounds like it could've come directly from John Carpenter's keyboard. The slow, drawn out synth notes and deliberately paced drums draw the listener in deeper than the more hip-hop/dancey tracks that precede it. The fullness of the layers, the lushness of the synths, and the soundtrack feel make this one of the top songs on the album. This is followed up by the low and chugging "Communal Goat." The rapid paced gunfire makes an effective background beat while the main drum hit sounds like a minor explosion and gets the gang violence and terror of New Amsterdam across. It's not all gloom and doom, though. "Msr. Slab" and "Forgetting to Live Again" are boppy and fairly fun, if not kinda silly at times, though, nothing on this release tops the weird, synth horn cat sound on "Secret Asian Trustfund" for goofiness. "What Is This Pleasure Of My Too Tight Suit?" pushes the album further down the dance aisle. The synths are thick and the song is full, and it even gets reminiscent of "Battleflag" by Lo Fidelity Allstars. This is followed by "Dick Ray," which sounds like a laserbeam chorus doing a slowed down version of ODB's "Got Your Money."

There are a lot of interesting sounds and excellent synths on Escape From New Amsterdam. The songs are pretty well put together and it manages to avoid being too thin too often like most other releases of this ilk. I understand that it's fun music and all, but there are some goofy elements that take away from the more straight forward groove of it. It's a fun release and I'd probably check out more of Oxykitten's stuff.