The rabbit from Alice in Wonderland comes to life in the boy from the windy city’s DJ come IDM composer, Mike Jedlicka’s A Movie Without Pictures. The hilarious cover art with a self portrait surrounded by animals in Roman garb illustrates full well the kindergarten levity of “Hippity Hop” (samples provided by Niko/NFU) and most of this nearly half-hour long adventure.
Organic field recordings found from Illinois to Florida are woven into the wealth of piano, voices and dramatic wind. But Jedlicka keeps the dark side real by adding up his weight in beats, but only giving half away now, and saving some for later. What’s really good here is that he is not attempting to make anything shaped like a pop record, more like several pop records being played simultaneously, add some live jazzy cornet and percussive deviation and out comes post-pop, I guess. As for the unwound “Woundup Toy” – it’s faded, unfinished sounding remix of a piece by label-mate Electric Blanket –part of it is a bit buried in muddled layers though the drums are quite good. On the guitar rollicking “Preachin” – yes, that’s what I am talking about! A preacher tolls the same old “satan story” with auctioneer-speak precision, but quickly evaporates as this track is sadly only less than two minutes long, definitely worth further exploration. The ambient “Couch Expedition” is weightless as caressed by boiling waters, bells and whistles. As his debut, A Movie Without Pictures proves the inverse of its title, using sounds to conjure improbable situations that exist in the space of Jedlicka’s mind. Watch for the sequel!
A Movie Without Pictures will be available at the end of May on Dick And Jane Records.
