Energy Slime

Energy Slime

New Dimensional

Mint

Alongside the starry-eyed synth-pop and minor-key melancholia of his self-titled debut, Vancouver’s Jay Arner has mastered the art of deadpan absurdity. Oddball jokes and non-sequiturs linger around the edges of computer-animated music videos and sketchbook scribbles transformed into t-shirts. Now, joined by his partner in crime Jessica Delisle, these poker-faced put-ons have been conjured into a blob of pure sonic ectoplasm. Say hi to Energy Slime!  New Dimensional is the duo’s primordial ooze, cramming ten songs into a jam-stacked thirteen minutes and two sides of a 7-inch. Like Robert Pollard in quick-hitter mode, or a circuit-fried Bruce Haack and Esther Nelson, the pair creates way-out musical miniatures. Energy Slime’s enchanting earworms range from the fuzzed-out glam stomp of “Bustin’ Up” to the stately Eno pomp of “Mother Brother Sister Father.” The breezy blue sky-ride of “Only Clouds” crash lands on the space cruise of “Star on the Ground,” after a 34-second huff of “Gas in a Bag.” Delisle grabs the mic for the shimmering Cyndi Lauper sock-hop of “Cool Ship II” while Arner shares his medical credentials with the feather-banged headbang of “Why U Wanna.” Road trippin’ ramble-riffs follow “Trial of the Mind” onto the rattling trail of “So Long Snakes.” And the crown-jeweled centerpiece is a lascivious tribute to one half of Stop Podcasting Yourself titled (natch) “Graham Fucks the Queen.”