Compass - Antonio Rumori

(SharkAttack!, 2001)

Lockgroove bassist Dave Doom (a.k.a. Compass) takes a strut down solo-gentleman lane, and it’s certainly a different trip from the spacerock blast-offs of his SharkAttack! friends. Rather than guitars, beats are the key here, tinny beats all a-snappin’ and cracklin’ and poppin’ alongside keyboards and electronic loops. It’s not “dance” music, though, and there’s something vaguely unsettling about the grimy, densely-layered “Antonio Rumori” as those peppy rhythms skitter underneath Doom’s faraway vocals. There’s definitely a late-night, druggy fog around both songs (particularly the languid pop-collage “Estacion Especial”), which means that Compass, mood-wise, doesn’t stray so far from the Lockgroove/Charlene reservation as to be totally unrecognizable as a product of that scene, but it’s still an interesting attempt to stretch out and cover some new sonic turf.

Compass later released a full-length that I have yet to hear… I got nuttin for you on that front.