Pepe Bradock’s “Baby Craddock” is One of Our Best Records of the Year

Another wild sensory OD from Pepe Bradock, who makes atavisme more a credo than a proper name. “Yazuke” is juke joint jazz discovered and assimilated by space age robots, like the music of some long lost and vaguely insensitive cartoon escaping out of history into the near future. “Grodno” (a city in Eastern Europe if memory serves, though I don’t know if that has anything to do with anything) is the heat: a dressed-down jagged edged jam that works its way deep into your subconsciousness. “Sainte-Maure” continues the reclaimed art aesthetic with sonorous violins.

On the flip is “Underground Monongahela,” another stomper, with muted electronic screams and beeps bent and wrapped around the groove. Absolute classic! “Boom Boom Crash” is uptempo, and also the point where I realized that this isn’t “another Pepe Bradock record,” though that would still be better than the average. It’s one of his best. It’s right there. Nobody else is making tracks like these – Theo Parrish does a little but they have so much of his own character in them, just like these have Pepe’s.

“1755” closes it out with more beautiful elements that are never mixed together mixed together here in the most pleasing way: a synthetic harp plucking out an irresistible hook while radio waves blow through while the station signal wavers to the left and the right. Magnificent from start to finish.