"Javelin, comprised of New York City crate-rats George Langford and Tom Van Buskirk, certainly do their share of jumping around, never letting their listener get too close to an idea or a groove for very long."
Zach Kelly, Pitchfork (2009)
Javelin achieved indie critical acclaim early on in their career, with their debut EP JAMZ N JEMZ (2009) being labeled as Pitchfork's 'Best New Music'. It earned the Brooklyn-based duo a 'Rising' status and was also given an honorable mention for Pitchfork's "Albums of the Year" in 2009:
"There may be plenty of DJs capable of stitching together a range of sounds into a cohesive mix, but it takes a special ear to alchemize travelogues and dollar bins into a party, and Brooklyn duo Javelin appear to have four such ears. Jamz n Jemz features a hipster club mix cut from global fabric, with Andean flutes nestled comfortably inside drum breaks and filtered through a tape hiss haze. Want electro? A crescendo of sex-ed jam "STD Fury" and the hopscotch electro of "Vibrationz" showed their ability to make the floor rock. Want DJ rupture-style international excursions? The extended coda starting with "Condor Naturale" racks up the frequent-flier miles without getting too curatorial. Hopefully, Luaka Bop's lawyers are already in motion for the official debut."
-Rob Mitchum, 2009
I'm still hooked on the interestingly titled "Lindsay Brohan" even though I can't figure out how Lindsay Lohan's influence figures into it. It begins with a snippet of an exchange between an interested observer and what appears to be an extreme sports enthusiast:
"Do you guys use special bicycles when you jump into the water like this?"
"No, we use our trick bikes which are ranging from eight hundred to a thousand bucks. It's kind of silly if you ask me, but what the heck."
The casual, laid-back, 'hipster' recklessness of the stunt biker's utterance seems to permeate the instrumentals that follow, creating a progressive and dynamic beat that seems thrilling and exciting - but in chill, relaxed way. There's some found sounds that appear halfway through the song: cheers, claps, applause, exclamations (yeah ...Yeah!) and hollers abound before the stunt biker from before speaks again: "I'm just a weirdo, I guess. But I like it". The track that reverts to pure instrumentals until the end. The atmosphere seems to mirror the mental state of a seasoned stunt biker, skateboarder or rock climber who has been accustomed to their sport's adrenaline rush, but still find a satisfactory thrill in the endeavour.
Langford and Buskirk's pillaging of retro hip-hop, rock, oldies, and rhythms instrumentals into eccentric reimagined sonic collages are never predictable; I haven't found the impetus to embrace their more adventurous or 'out there' offerings just yet. If you also enjoy the 'chillaxed', minimalist atmosphere of "Lindsay Brohan", you'd probably also enjoy "Vibrationz":
