Slowing down the chipmunks' punk punk cuts

In 2015, a decade before the current year's best album, Canadian musician Brian Borcherdt stumbled upon a unique sound. He bought a vintage 16 rpm turntable, designed for spoken word albums, and experimented with playing 45 rpm records on it, slowing them down to a disorienting crawl.

Chipmunks on 16 speed

His breakthrough came when he discovered the 1980 Chipmunks album Chipmunk Punk, a cynical attempt to cash in on punk rock. When played at 16 rpm, the album's high, pitch-shifted vocals returned to their original register, but the instruments became glacially slow, with guitars squelching and drums thudding punishingly.

Borcherdt captured some of these slowed-down tracks, along with other Chipmunk covers and originals, and released them under the project name Chipmunks on 16 Speed. The result is both menacing and beguiling, with moments that get genuinely gnarly and others that are disarmingly beautiful.

As the project has gained cult status, fans have reimagnined the Chipmunks as doomed, hell-raising rock stars. Listening to Chipmunks on 16 Speed, it's easy to understand the adoration. In their decelerated form, the songs capture a woozy, alienating, downbeat register that feels both a reflection on and rejection of our overstimulated age.