Rafter

Rafter’s Sex, Death, Cassette is as gleefully eclectic as the company its maker keeps. Fittingly signed to Sufjan Stevens’ Asthmatic Kitty imprint, Rafter Roberts, occasional sideman for the Fiery Furnaces, has a beautiful instinct for blending pristine pop with lo-fi noise experiments, jazz horns and dirty dance beats. Beck is an obvious touchstone on "Slay Me,” a raspy guitar leading Rafter’s rhythmic drawl through clanking percussion and sputtering saxophone. Playful refrain "Fuck you, the sky!” marks the brief "Breathing Room” as an album standout. In fact, most of these songs are one to two minutes long, leaving little chance to wear out their welcome, and rarely seeming under-developed. It’s mostly a solo show; Rafter wrote and recorded it all and plays every instrument, aside from the sax, trumpet, violin and "lady singing.” Cramming 19 memorable experimental pop gems onto this exceptional album, the songs only lose steam when pushing past three-minutes, a rarity on this wonderful example of creative efficiency.