Taste - Half Off!

Double tape action from relatively new San Fran act Taste, the one-man show of Cindy member, Oli Lipton. The Cindy association means you can rely on it being very decent at the very least, but other than that might prove a partial misnomer, as the drum machine & wiry fuzz guitar glam-psych affectations on show here are a good way removed from the slowcore dreampop of Lipton's parent group and, if you're looking for a contemporary, much closer in spirit to fellow Bay Area odd-poppers Famous Mammals and Now (project of Cindy bassist Will Smith and with whom Lipton also plays). Both cassettes arrived into the world at pretty much the same time and it's impossible to pick between them (i.e. if you want one, you'll need both), or even really work out why the recordings have been divided as they have, but why should that be of concern anyway? Lipton's clearly a prolific, sharply-honed writer on an obvious hot streak with a patrician's knowledge of many of the greats: Cleaners From Venus, Hunky Dory, Wire, The Clean, Jay Reatard (16 years gone this week btw) and so forth. Of course, anyone can have a good record collection. Turning it into effortlessly melodic earworm contagion of such a consistently high calibre is a much lesser observed trait. Litpon's indisputably part of that rare class.