On 10 Seconds to Collapse, the new full-length collaboration between Tim Rutili of Red Red Meat/Califone and Craig Ross (Shearwater, Lisa Germano, Spoon, Patty Griffin, Robert Plant, Daniel Johnston), the duo tear down and reassemble a set of compositions evoking folk, pop, and psychedelic rock & roll song forms. The resulting eight-song lp is a damaged but nonetheless pleasant listen; a charmingly disorienting spin through dystopic themes. The duo's previous, 2016’s Guitars Tuned to Air Conditioners, was a meditation on electricity and drone, but the new record hews a little closer to Califone's 2013 album, Stitches, which Ross contributed to alongside a wide cast of players assembled by Rutili. Like that album, it borders on the apocalyptic, cutting out familiar scenes which become weirdly revelatory removed from their source. It wasn't a decision per se, but rather a natural development and outgrowth of the two players' friendship.
"It's like a coping mechanism," Rutili says. "That's what we joke about: the darkest, most horrible stuff. Even though it wasn't a conscious effort to make a record about this most horrible time, it just found it's way in there."
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