Push Pull, the

General | Feb 2005

Reviews

Captain Dee
Reviewed 2005-02-27
David Last storms KZSU again, this time with a full-length studio album. You might remember David Last from his Live at Halycon EP that hit A-File last Spring. Regardless, you’re due for quite the treat.

Imagine super spacey trip-hop, a la Luke Vibert, with intricate glitch-hop, dub, and even reggae influences. Last’s sound pallet resonates an ineffably “exotic” vibe that I can’t quite explain. The whole album brings to mind the image of a mysterious ceremony/party in the secret heart of a forest. As I said in my last review, it’s amazing how “organic” his music is. His dark, swirling compositions and bounce-y, catchy beats grow and evolve on the fly. That live EP I mentioned above is a bit stronger, but this release is still fuckin’ cool. Check it!

Favorite Tracks: 2, 8

- Captain Dee, Feb. 2005

*1. Stringed instrumentation over hollow beat and critter-ish rumbling. (1:54)
**2. Haunting ambience washes in and out under exotic instrumentation and an incredibly tight, bounce-y beat. Ghosts having a party, maybe? Dope! (4:21)
3. “Dirty” beat, underwater feel. Tweaked samples, cool chiming melody reminds me of island-style steel drums. (4:20)
4. Murky vibe. Hand-claps, rumbling, more steel drums. (4:22)
5. Goofy sounds, plucks, buzzy drums. Dance in a firelit cave? (3:08)
*6. Cut-up mix of steel drums, whispering melodies, electronic pulses, and all sorts of other ambience. Party in the alien equivalent of Jamaica?
*7. Reggae feel, electronic buzzing. Tight layering of downtempo beats! (4:47)
**8. The album’s standout track. Infectious beat, hand-claps, intricate layers of bloopy sound effects and skittering ambience. Enchanting “European” accordion melody. Towards the end, full tragic strings over cooing backdrop. Ends with the famous “Hey kid, I’m a computer!” sample. Stunning! (8:01)
9. Echoy voice, robotic critters happily walking around, creepy laughing. Later, thick drone. Soft clicking in the background. (4:30)
*10. Catchy bass and beat. Semi-sexual “mmm” samples. Upbeat, with super trippy clang-y dissonance. Later, wistful accordion. Cool! (4:31)
11. Dark, slo-mo drones, downtempo beat, muddled atmosphere. Like a drugged-out mashup of the eleven previous tracks. (2:49)
12. Tweaked, super dark tribal-ish chanting that freaks me out. Glitchy beat, beeps and bloops, other creepy vocal/laughing samples. (4:16)

Recent airplay

The Push Pull, Posca Kid, Springset
Subcutaneous Phycomycosis — Dec 05, 2006
Makeout Stakeout
Posca Kid, The Push Pull
Black and Blue — Apr 18, 2005
The Push Pull
Black and Blue — Apr 11, 2005
Posca Kid, The Push Pull
Eat Your Beats — Apr 06, 2005
Makeout Stakeout

Charting

2005-02-27 — 2005-05-01 Electronic, Classical/Experimental
Week EndingAirplays
Apr 24 2
Apr 17 1
Apr 10 1
Apr 3 1
Mar 27 1
Mar 20 1
Mar 13 4
Mar 6 5

Track listing

1. Besitos
2. The Push Pull
3. Secret Society
4. Badlands
5. Springset
6. Parataxic
7. Cat-Silver
8. Posca Kid
9. Vestigal Limbs
10. Makeout Stakeout
11. Badlands Goodlands
12. Chiki