#23 - Ryan & Steve

Valet

Naked Acid

2008

Valet is the solo endeavor of Honey Owens, one part of Jackie-O Motherfucker, from Portland, OR. I may go so far as to call this the druggiest album on the list. You might disagree once we unveil a few more, but as of now, it's certainly close. Just listen to the guitar lines on "We Went There" at around 3:20. It slithers up and down the ethereal and submerged melody line, bubbling underneath. Eventually the song fades into a muted, breathy drone as it gently ebbs and flows through the tracks conclusion. It's a gorgeous slide into abyss.

"Naked Acid" is a surprisingly diverse affair. The second song, "Drum Movie" is a straight drone piece, utilizing a similar breathiness and creating something of a palette cleanser for "Kehaar". The melodies immediately reveal themselves on "Kehaar" only to slowly become obscured as the swirling, reverb'd out vocals, soaring guitar stabs and tribal drumming overtake the soundscape. Then on "Fuck It" the pacing builds and we're treated to a homespun bluesy, acid-soaked jam. The players unleash after the restraint from the previous ambient passages. Then of course, the finale, "Streets". A beat-driven tripped-out excursion into Valet's version of a dance hit. Beautiful tunes and a unique vision. I mean, jesus, did you look at that album cover? Is that a persian cat? -S.R.

Unless you have had a lot of experience listening to slow-paced, drawn-out music with little to no rhythm, this is a very difficult album to listen to. I like to think that I’m a pretty open-minded listener interested in music of all kinds, but even I had a really hard time latching onto anything in this album until the second-to-last track, “Fire.” There’s just not much use of drums, chord progression, or melodic vocals to easily attract a foreign listener to this work. - Phil