Alien in a Garbage Dump

Audio Mixers: Nicolas Vernhes; Barry London.
Founding member of N.Y.C. noise collagists Black Dice, Eric Copeland took his particularly skewed perspective on sample-based music into much more dazed and confused territory with his solo albums. His pieces are largely disjointed, barely cogent takes on pop music made up from all the same elements as traditional pop, just run through some sonic food processor until completely unrecognizable to any lucid mind. Alien in a Garbage Dump stood in as Copeland's second album, though technically it repackaged two out of print vinyl-only EPs. The 13 tracks here are a dizzying and disorienting pastiche of found sound samples, neon textures, and buried beats that could pass for hip-hop in an alternate reality. Various shades of recognizable pop forms fade in and out of focus throughout this album, with the woozy, off-time glitch-meets-shoegaze romper "Corn on the Cob" giving way to murky minimal beats like "Reptilian Space Beings, Shapeshifting Bloodsucking Vampires" or complete meltdowns like "Everybody's Libido." ~ Fred Thomas