Rearranged Face: Far Green Arcade 12″

Description

“L.A.s Rearranged Face is back with the follow-up to 2021s A Rare Caged Fern 12, giving their anxious, art-fractured racket only slightly more room to unwind this time around. Far Green Arcade features eleven tracks jammed out fully econo, a frenetic blur of whirring and beeping keys, taut rubber band bass, bee-in-bonnet vocals, and urgently bashed beats, dished out in mostly sub-two-minute increments, never overstaying their welcome. The bands basic approach is still a jumpy mix of Devo-descended wiggly world rhythms (Another Mystery and Blink of an Eye are especially devolved), hip-swinging early 00s post-punk revival sass (the hiccuping floor-burner Serpentstone), and the synth-flecked bounce of early new wave (before that became a completely loaded term). But rather than merely stitching those asymmetrical scraps into another by-the-numbers genre pastiche, Rearranged Face bring a restless energy and genuine weirdo creativity to their twitchy sound, crafting something thats authentically their own while still lovingly citing touchstones from the pastthe new wave of new wave.” – Erika Elizabeth (MRR/Domestic Departure/Collate)

Our take: I really enjoyed this LA bands 2021 LP, A Rare Caged Fern (which is still in stock!), and this new album is an excellent follow-up. While I probably reference turn-of-the-80s art rock / new wave bands like Suburban Lawns, Talking Heads, and the B-52s in descriptions of contemporary bands relatively often, few of them evoke that vibe as strongly as Rearranged Face. Perhaps its Rearranged Faces crisp production style, which is a marked contrast to the lo-fi egg punk bands who share a similar set of influences (particularly Devo, whose criss-crossing robotic rhythms are all over Far Green Arcade). Uranium Club is a contemporary band that does something similar to Rearranged Face, but whereas Uranium Clubs music often stretches to psychedelic lengths, Rearranged Faces songs are snappy and dense with ideas. Im a sucker for bands like this who wrap toe-tapping melodies in an arty and slightly obtuse aesthetic, and Far Green Arcade definitely scratches that itch.