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#27
Javelin: Oh Centra
7"
Available
Beautiful 7” by this cool duo from Providence! Their sound although is not much like their colleagues’ in the super city USA. In Javelin’s music samples and their own playing melt into a great whole of genius groovy living room music. Perfect music for summer night after-parties in amusement parks. It’s so incredibly fresh you want to explode when it’s over! To avoid explosion you want to listen to the 7” forever! Not exploding means that you can enjoy your life and love this beautiful world.
Both sides are 45 rpm!
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"New single on the Finnish Lal Lal Lal label documenting the cut-up/day-glo ravings of this Providence duo who mix crudely-pirated RnB juice with school-yard wordage, fucked up cheap beats and a whole load of hormonal agit-agression."
- Volcanic Tongue
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"Javelin (not to be confused with the power metal band) are from Providence, RI and not Finland but are no less wacko. Like, seriously batty. Or should I say catty? Really, turn the 7" over and there's like a whole bunch more cartoon cats just hanging out. It's cool, cats are cool. But I don't even know what to make of this one. Side A (featuring the song "Oh Centra" I think) sees a high-pitched equally-cartoony voice delivering monotonic lines over a techno/dance/pop/synth beat. Lines about "playing you like sudoku". It's like, uh, Ladytron or the Self album with all the toys or some sugar-sweet J-pop or I don't even know what. The B side doesn't confuse me any less and features a more masculine voice chanting "S-C-H-O-O-L go to school" alongside a kinda R&B-ish beat. And the other song has a bunch of splices and samples of someone intoning something about a mobile phone. The Lal Lal Lal website suggests the group mixes samples along with actual playing and that definitely makes sense (if anything makes sense here) but it's impossible to tell what's coming from them and what's coming from the tape recorder. I also understood a bit better when I read that these cats (ha!) were coming from Providence, and you'd kinda understand too if you heard it."
- Matt / Outer Space Gamelan
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"Providence art school kids on a Finnish label … hmmm. “Oh Centra” is a sleepy bedroom “rap” steered in the direction of Ween via Barnes & Barnes; pretty stoned, goofy, albeit deeply-layered track that is surprisingly durable, given its jokey roots. Not something I’m going to go back to all the time, but far more than what it needed to be. The untitled flip is a simple, Nu Shooz-style light dancefloor school touting the benefits of education. Despite the novelty feel here, I’m really digging this single. Maybe you will too."
- Dusted Magazine
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"Arty keyboards and fucked up Chipmunk vocals music from this Providence, duo. It’s on a Finnish label. ‘Oh Centra’ is hip hop done by Rhode Island white kids, in their bedrooms. The B side is about going to school. Art school? The r&b beats they got going (ripped) are nice."
- Tim Scott / Screaming Bloody Mess
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"Kepeää lo-fi-poppia luova Javelin pistää autereisen valloittavan pienieleisesti, edeten hissutellen. Tai niin luulin, kunnes löysin netistä lallallal-yhtiön sivut ja selvisi että hitto nopeus pitäisi olla 45 rpm! Kansista tai levystä ei paljoa selvinnyt... Noo... uusintakuuntelun jälkeen touhu on edelleen aikast kepeää tällä nähtävästi Providencesta kotoisin olevalla kaksikolla. Pikkuoravat-henkinen videopeli-avausraita vakuuttaa ennen muuta ilmavuudellaan, vaikka välillä autereiset biisit karkaavat melkoiseen aurinkotuuleen. Sämple-liimailusta tulee välillä mieleen jopa avantgardinen hiphop, mutta eiköhän Javelin määritelmällisesti kuitenkin pysyttele popin sarjassa. Joskaan ei ihan perinteisimmällä kaavalla. Hauskaa, heleää ja hilpeää lo-fi-olohuonepoppia. Joutuuhan tätä diggailemaan..."
- Ilkka Valpasvuo / Desibeli.net