New Releases: Mo Troper

Portland, Oregon-based singer/songwrter/musician Mo Troper has been releasing DIY indie records for about ten years. Despite some postpunk scrappiness, at heart his music is an homage to 60s-flavored pop, his projects full of raw but wonderfully catchy retro pop hooks that remind me most of early Elephant 6 recordings (particularly Olivia Tremor Control and Apples In Stereo). T the rapid-fire barrage of barely-finished tunes also draws the inevitable Guided By Voices comparison, while the eccentric Troper intermittently veers more into Daniel Johnston territory.

While on rare occasions his music has been (relatively) polished, most notably 2017's excellent Exposure & Response, most releases have been on the stripped-down lo-fi side. His latest, Today I Played My Guitar And Sang, is a pleasant surprise--while the title and cover art (Troper's Asperger Syndrome diagnosis!) suggest another skittish, scattered affair, it's his most fully-realized record to date (though still far from high-end production). Opener "The Best Seat In The House" is delightfully jangly pop, and what follows is just a steady stream of Elephant 6-styled unabashed retro-pop, with occasional diversions into Brian Wilson baroque pop. As with his prior work, it's concise to a fault, 13 songs falling shy of 30 minutes, but still makes for a fully satisfying listen. Check it out at Bandcamp.