New Girl Named T, Squidopus

SQUIDOPUS

“Sushi Explosion”

* * * * 1/2

BEST IN THE WEST

“Sushi Explosion,” the first single from Squidopus, at first feels less like an explosion than a fire spreading.  The most unique and interesting quality of this song is the way it moves--rather than racing towards the horizon like the work of bassist Kris Buttafoco’s main band The Inq, “Sushi Explosion” unfurls, with each mini-section slowly unraveling and revealing something new while keeping to the same sonic template.  Slamming math-rock drums and chatty guitars give way to spacious, psychedelic atmospherics, dragging you into its depths like a miniature version of a Microphones or Pink Floyd album.  Then a fractured funk groove kicks in, gradually filling out and blurring together.  And then, at the end, it explodes.

GIRL NAMED T

Wait By The Rabbit Hole

* * * 1/2

Theresa “T” Sawi says her second album was inspired by the Beach Boys’ concept of the “pocket symphony.”  But while the Beach Boys applied symphonic ideas to their sound as well as the structure and scope of their work, Girl Named T is an artist who seems to work best in miniature.  The songs on Wait By The Rabbit Hole are two to three minutes each (only her cover of Modern English’s “I Melt With You” exceeds four minutes), and there are eight of them over twenty-five minutes.  Yet at the same time, these songs are more expansive than anything on her excellent 2010 debut, Hey Liebe.  Leadoff track and standout “I Fell In Love With The World Today” sounds almost like an Elton John or Electric Light Orchestra track, with its ‘70s pianos and chamber-vaudeville strings.  That classic-rock grandness is also present on “Wrecking Ball” and the organ-flavored “Falalala Love You.”  But the best tracks are the simplest and most direct, particularly the Fleetwood Mac-ish “Rabbit Hole.”