With Alien in a Garbage Dump, Brooklyn’s Eric Copeland emerges from his underground bunker, having sifted through the constant stimulation found everywhere in this 21st Century, discovering connections within our united co-existence while avoiding the prejudices we are relentlessly force-fed from the powers that be. If approached from their angle, you’ll walk away disappointed; some rules are being broken here. But if open to inspiration everywhere, Alien proves to be a strangely curated time capsule of OUR time right NOW; music where birds beat-box with car-stereo subwoofers and the neighbors’ espanol sings on top the Sabbath siren. With all this going on, Copeland sometimes disappears into the anonymity, playing a ‘behind-the-scenes’ role, pushing cords and pulling buttons, laughing because the batteries are dying. The result is a collection of songs at once uniquely urban but still strangely universal in language. Fifteen years strong in the game and somehow it’s easier to see where his music is going as opposed to where it’s been.
Alien in a Garbage Dump represents almost two years of basement jamming and collecting. At the same time he was immersed in two Black Dice albums. Consequently, there are obvious parallels in the results; an uncompromised sonic landscape. But alone, Copeland has found places one can only find alone: small inner dialogues and isolated mind caves where the idea may only last a moment, but he captures and tweaks it into a fragment of many memories; a déjà vu record déjà vu record. Funny characters drop in and out. Songs come and go. Within the shuffle, we refocus over and over and connections are made and lost and that’s the fun in the listen. So listen some more and discover something new again. Ha ha ha.
The first seven songs of this release appeared as a vinyl EP by the same name put out by Paw Tracks last year. The last six songs appear as a vinyl EP named Al Anon put out by Catsup Plate.
