Cypress and Russle is the one man band / musical moniker of Texas based songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, DIY producer Thomas Cook. The track "Mother Dearest" from the 2020 album release "On Existing and Dying" might be the most indie rock centered track on the album that has a free ID attitude veering into experimental takes on post punk and alt folk bending in noisy bits of ambient sounds. Amid the sort of Pixies bass drawn opening, "Mother Dearest", shoots off into lush proggy pop motifs as well (I thought of Todd Rundgren actually) all the while reflecting a kind of Flaming Lips duality. It is a lovely tight wire act seamlessly rendered.
Cook's desire to explore the ID, to experiment with no need to create a genre based album is absolutely engaging. The track, "Yes I Do" moves on electronica and dream pop affections and is a creation inspiring Sci Fi retro and future dreams. "Diana" with a trip hop attitude ascending sweetness feels like shoegaze art pop and feels decidedly 70's art pop Nilsson to me. The sort of electronic tropicalia of the opener "Apple Blossom Time" and deep harmonies feels like something between a 2020 dream and a 40's nightmare. The repetitive pastiche of sounds pushed against the pure storm of drama and undulating synths if realized as a museum based art installation would be something between one created by Andreas Franke or Miru Kim. It is totally surreal. By the time you realize that this audacious nightmare is a dark deconstruction inspired (at least as a stepping off point) by the Andrew Sisters' 1941 "(I'll Be with You) In Apple Blossom Time" (written by Albert Von Tilzer and lyricist Neville Fleeson, in 1920) you are too deep in the rabbit hole and floating in the acidic lysergic diethylamide haze of the song. The result feels like a punch line to a dark comedy joke. Brilliant stuff, truly. It awed me.
The track "Ben Rich and the Vagabonds" feels at once like Kevin Morby jamming with Man Man on a moving freight car. "A Dog Named Lucky" steeps into raw bare sad core. It feels like a documentary and crazily refreshing and charming against all the askew songs that came before. The beautiful almost childlike "If I" shifting on descending keys, ooohs and church organ sounds while a percolating broken and healing beat moves through blips and beeps feels like a spaceship fueled by a stew of Radiohead, Four Tet, Unknowm Mortal Orchestra and Shinowa. The swaying distortion of "Blank Page" doesn't feel like an appropriate coda but the crashing soul pop pastiche is so lushly drivable. I think the last song should of been the "Twenty Two". It feels like an imploding bit of bohemian grunge with indie rock edges a lah 90's College Radio. A song that feels very 90's Athens, Georgia moving is more or less straight lines, grounding all the aforementioned (and wonderful) experimentation into something nostalgic and comfortable.
Cook's desire to explore the ID, to experiment with no need to create a genre based album is absolutely engaging. The track, "Yes I Do" moves on electronica and dream pop affections and is a creation inspiring Sci Fi retro and future dreams. "Diana" with a trip hop attitude ascending sweetness feels like shoegaze art pop and feels decidedly 70's art pop Nilsson to me. The sort of electronic tropicalia of the opener "Apple Blossom Time" and deep harmonies feels like something between a 2020 dream and a 40's nightmare. The repetitive pastiche of sounds pushed against the pure storm of drama and undulating synths if realized as a museum based art installation would be something between one created by Andreas Franke or Miru Kim. It is totally surreal. By the time you realize that this audacious nightmare is a dark deconstruction inspired (at least as a stepping off point) by the Andrew Sisters' 1941 "(I'll Be with You) In Apple Blossom Time" (written by Albert Von Tilzer and lyricist Neville Fleeson, in 1920) you are too deep in the rabbit hole and floating in the acidic lysergic diethylamide haze of the song. The result feels like a punch line to a dark comedy joke. Brilliant stuff, truly. It awed me.
The track "Ben Rich and the Vagabonds" feels at once like Kevin Morby jamming with Man Man on a moving freight car. "A Dog Named Lucky" steeps into raw bare sad core. It feels like a documentary and crazily refreshing and charming against all the askew songs that came before. The beautiful almost childlike "If I" shifting on descending keys, ooohs and church organ sounds while a percolating broken and healing beat moves through blips and beeps feels like a spaceship fueled by a stew of Radiohead, Four Tet, Unknowm Mortal Orchestra and Shinowa. The swaying distortion of "Blank Page" doesn't feel like an appropriate coda but the crashing soul pop pastiche is so lushly drivable. I think the last song should of been the "Twenty Two". It feels like an imploding bit of bohemian grunge with indie rock edges a lah 90's College Radio. A song that feels very 90's Athens, Georgia moving is more or less straight lines, grounding all the aforementioned (and wonderful) experimentation into something nostalgic and comfortable.
So utterly impressed with Thomas Cook (as Cypress and Russle) and this dream provoking album "On Existing and Dying". It is nice to be surprised and escape from this fucked up place. One of the best experimental post punk, indie albums I have heard in a while and vastly more engaging that the Flaming Lips' "American Head" album.
-Robb Donker Curtius
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Conventional Experimental music from Texas. Exploring balance and duality in all things and tryin not to be a douchebag about it.
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