“Free Stress Test”
from the EP Professor Murder Rides the Subway
2006
iTunes
Download an MP3 of “Free Stress Test” from Insound.com
[right-click/save-as]
Professor Murder’s stellar post-punk, dub-rock debut EP hadn’t even dropped yet and the NYC-based quartet — Jesse Cohen (keyboards, samples, fake drums), Andy Craven (drums), Michael Bell-Smith (vocals, percussion, bass, keys), and Tony Plunkett (bass/melodica) — had already shared dance-rock bills with !!! and Radio 4.
Out Hud once told whiney indie kids that NYC’s L-train is a swell train, and this quartet may have that same crowd dancing all along New York City’s public transportation lines with Professor Murder Rides the Subway. On it, the band trade instruments like they’re Pogs, but nothing’s grade-school about their first outing. P-Murder bang out five cohesive, crisp, ass-shaking songs that have enough dance-dub fuel to keep the party going well after hours. Of particular interest: the outer-worldly laser spiels of “Champion” and “Free Stress Test,“ one of this summer’s most infectiously rolling electro-rock anthems.
“We sometimes play shows under the name King Oppression,” Plunkett says. “During those shows, we sing our lyrics over rap songs like Outkast’s ‘Bombs Over Baghdad’ or to dancehall rhythms from Damian ‘Jr. Gong’ Marley. It’s like a live remix.” Speaking of remixes, Cohen and Bell-Smith once made a mash-up mixtape using the bangin’ beats of ringtones.