Shawn Lee - Synthesizers In Space

By: Joel Frieders

I knew that I know that I knew who Shawn Lee is, but I didn't know that I'd ever gotten to know his music, as it was always a need to know kind of thing to know, that I never knew I needed to know it. Well, it turns out I didn't know that I now know that I didn't know what I was missing, if his album Synthesizers In Space is any indication of what type of shit this dude drops, I am an epic asshole for not knowing anything about him besides knowing that I know his name from somewherez.

(Upon further investigation, I now see that I have close to 70 tracks of Shawn Lee's in my iTunes, including one with Clutchy Hopkins and one of my favorite albums of all time from Lord Newborn and the Magic Skulls.

I am a dick it seems.

Sorry Shawn Lee.)

So while I was dealing without having an mp3 jack in my vehicle, I settled for burning myself a data disc of tunes to tide me over until I could remedy that fucking catastrophic shituation bro bro. I threw in some jj, some Dark Time Sunshine, some Bells (the post rock band, not Tim's daughter), and I threw on the promo from Shawn Lee for his new album Synthesizers In Space because I had no idea what it was.

Four tracks into the album, and I was fucking tapping the info button on the dash asking myself "how did I not know this was this fucking dope?", and as the rest of the album made its way into my earholes I realized Shawn Lee is exactly who I should've known to know about all along.

Crafting perfectly relaxed as Fuck dusty ass electro hip hop beaters out of some familiar samples and spaced out doodles, Synthesizers In Space is an excellent motherfucking drive home album. It's the album Budos Band might bump while setting up. It's got that crusty, everything's covered in either sand or scorpions, I've been walking and thirsty for fucking ages vibe to it. While it feels extremely vinyl-y (yes, run away, I just said vinyl-y), there is a crisp commercial sheen over the entire album that makes it sound sonically better than what it feels like you're listening to.

If that doesn't make sense, I recommend re-reading it, because I mean it. This album has the sound quality of a Bose radio, but when you wipe off the aforementioned dust and scoropins, it's a fucking 8track bro bro.

Shawn Lee doesn't venture too far outside of the desert chase scene on this album, and while it's decorated and titled for space travel, I disagree, this muthafucker is meth deal gone wrong outside of Joshua Tree. There's even a track that sounds exactly like The Black Keys (Boogie Children), but if they were on meth and driving away from said meth deal after it went sour.

I don't normally shit talk an album's title and cover artwork, but seriously, if this isn't a perfect soundtrack for a 70s crime drama set in the southwest, it'd be a perfect knock off James Bond soundtrack. It's tense in a way that's actually quite calming, as you aren't the one getting chased, it's the guys with all the meth wearing denim and all the smudges bro.

Let's sit back and watch what the guys without teeth do with two tons of plastic explosives shall we?