Spllit – "Spllit Sides" – [Feel It Records]

Thurston Hunger   1/23/2022   12-inch, A Library

Together Ronni Bourgeois and Matthew Urquhart are Spllit. One “L” for each side of this Baton Rouge band adds up for a big “W” on this tremendous record. Short songs like pleasant panic attacks, trace elements of no wave, lyrics burst from grad school dissertations found in the trash cans. One moment they are creating “Next Level Music” (where Urquhart intones like Rod Serling) but a few itty-bitty ditties later they tell it’s all just for fun during the robo-puppet beginning of “The Joke (But Who’s Laughing)” I think it’s all seriously fun, cool dorky guitar, detached yet devoted vocals. “Urq’s Heart” spelllls out the band’s name and hints at Ken Nordine elocution. Lots of bizzy bass and ray-gun electronics. Planet Split is further out than Planet Claire, viva art damaged pop.

We all listen, like we die, alone. Please play this loud enough on your ear buds, so I can vaguely hear it through the walls in my pandemic isolation booth.
-Thurston Hunger