THIS IS INTERNATIONAL POP UNDERGROUND VOL. CXXIX

“The Frame” [IPU129] is the third single by Joey Casio released by K, and the second in the International Pop Underground series (following 2009’s “Debtor’s Prism” [IPU125]).

Casio continues to create something wholly new for this unsteady era. The longtime Olympian, and current Portlander, reassembles the wired connections of white-hot punk energy and post-disco electronic dance music. “The Frame” finds Casio sharpening his edges rather than just running in place: you’ll hear the calculated combination of dance and punk forms fused within a neon-lit matrix of percussion, including electronic strings, claps and bells and Casio’s laconic delivery; a box inside a box. The b-side, “Rituals,” is a tar pit of sound, pure disenfranchisement, remaining danceable while flirting with chaos.