“Rich Doors”
from the single Rich Doors
2009

I was always fond of Cobain’s final studio album name, In Utero. I still am; having heard that album long ago, before learning about the odds and ends of the human reproductive processes, the term “in utero” forever altered my perception of that mystical time in every human’s life when inside the womb. If, indeed, the whole notion of placing headphones on the stomach of the mother will shape the development of certain infantile capacities… what do you think it sounds like when the womb is silent? Well if I were curled up in darkness, venturing as far as my umbilical cord would allow, and floating around in warm amnionic fluid… I would have to say that young act NewVillager may best peg the soundtrack to a pre-birth lifespan.

It’s a different sound that combines so many different elements, so many funky twists/turns that it had to develop as intricately and painstakingly as a fetus. Judging by some of NewVillager’s background history as a here-and-there duo, such has to be the case. “Ben and Ross meet in Austin, Texas at SXSW ’08 and finish the first version of ‘Rich Doors’ in a vegan café. Moby sits at a table on the other side of the café. They leave behind a seed paste in the hill above the Mohawk, but forget to fertilize it. They eat some good Mexican food.” Since the calendar has progressed to 2009, so too has NewVillager’s development and the final version of their debut single “Rich Doors.

If this song is a precursor for all of the music NewVillager has yet to create, I am extremely excited about where their combination of unconventional pop and rhythmic electro-dance overtones lead them. The song shifts enough to initially demand dancing from all of the ears it retains to leaving you standing still, trapped inside your own head with ambient melodies promoting that type of intellectual floating. The duo are on the upswing, releasing a 7″ via Two Syllable and slowly turning the heads of all those who listen.

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Founded in Madison, WI in 2005, Jonk Music is a daily source for new music.