Todd Rittmann ditches U.S. Maples for the friendly environs of Joyful Noise and new project Dead Rider. The proceeding one-song taste, “The Walk Slow,” blows U.S. Maples out of the water. Yes, it really does. It’s Leonard Cohen on valium, backed by a warped version of The Bad Seeds. It’s one band layered upon another in some weird approximation of Jupiter’s gaseous atmosphere. Ammonia clouds obscuring water cloud swirling around hydrogen and helium constructs best judged by telescopic observations over a long period of time. In other words, no one’s going to appreciate the slow rolling power of Rittmann’s Giant Red Spot until 300 years from now when it’s still a powerful shot of musical mistaken identity. This is a whole new breed of pop music, equally catchy as it works its damnedest to be the squarest piece of scientific experimentation since Pluto’s devolution to a dwarf planet. Good news for those of diminutive stature: Peter Dinklage gets a lot of head in his own fantasy world. Even if Jupiter is 10 astronomical units from the Sun, there is a place where Rittmann and “The Walk Slow” will receive its just reward. It’s as big as the gas giant but as far away from Earth normal as it gets. I still love it, so too bad if you didn’t opt into JNR’s Flexidisc series.
More about: Dead Rider
