In what seems like mere months since Thee Oh Sees announced their "hiatus", we are treated not only to a John Dwyer solo album (the awesome "Damaged Bug" LP) but also this platter right here, "Drop" - Thee Oh Sees' twelfth studio album since 2006 (not counting numerous singles collected and EPs of the 12 & 7-inch variety). As you might expect it's on Dwyer's label Castle Face, so listen up to what they're layin' down:
"Our lad John P. Dwyer has been lancing eardrums with Thee Oh Sees in an ever-escalating flurry of records for the past six years. Since the release of The Master’s Bedroom Is Worth Spending a Night In announced a new loud era (and excepting a few momentary detours into home-baked territory—Dog Poison and Castlemania, for example), Dwyer and company have pummeled a bit harder each time out, cementing their reputation as a live force to be reckoned with and leaving legions sweaty and bruised in the process. Late last year, after years of relentlessly touring the world, the word got out… Dwyer’s moving to Los Angeles (fear not, still California!) and Thee Oh Sees are taking a much-needed hiatus with a shifting of gears ahead and a new album on the way. This is that album. Drop was recorded in a banana-ripening warehouse (no joke) with hair-farming studio warlock Chris Woodhouse playing drums; it’s also graced with the presence of talented gurus Mikal Cronin, Greer McGettrick and Casafis adding horns and vocals. The result pushes the familiar polarities of the group farther outward than ever before. Opener “Penetrating Eye” might be the heaviest Oh Sees song yet, “Transparent World” and “Put Some Reverb On My Brother” foam with seasick fuzz, and yet the ballads, like the harpsichorded “King’s Nose” and the lush and stately closer “The Lens,” extend their oeuvre into mellotronic, far-out pop with delicacy and grace. This schizophrenia heralds the man and the band into an unseen future in classic Dwyer fashion—restless energy harnessed into exquisitely crafted jams, with an emphasis on the pensive and the paranoid in turns."
After the pummeling and inventive ferocity of last year's "Floating Coffin", the measured attack of "Drop" seems like a step back (or at least a step sideways) for our fair heroes, but repeated listens are rewarded with many treasures; the weird squiggling synth lines and unexpected melodic twists on tunes like the hypnotic burner "Encrypted Bounce" and the stately, acid-bubbler "Savage Victory". "Drop" also has its fair share of barnstormers, like opener "Penetrating Eye" that sounds like a leaner and meaner version of the classic lineup (despite everything - sans drums - being played by Dwyer himself). If you're already a fan, this writeup is meaningless and you've already "DROP"d this one in your shopping cart (eh? eh?), but if you're on the fence REST ASSURED - "Drop" is well worth your time. We're digging it FULL ON and might need a hanky or two to wipe off the moistened areas after spinning this a few times. RECOMMENDED x INFINITY ~ DWYER 4 PREZ.
Original 1977 Stock!!!
The ever diligent P-Rex diggers have unearthed yet another batch of original stock LPs of minimal synthesizer compostitions. We were able to obtain the first two albums by the one and only Geodesium directly from the group's in-house label Loch Ness Productions. Get the full scoop from the label here:
"GEODESIUM, the eponymous first album from Mark C. Petersen, consists of electronic music recorded at Fiske Planetarium from 1975 to 1977. At the request of many pleased planetarium patrons who had inquired about obtaining the music they had heard in the shows, Mark put together an album of the most popular selections. He used only two instruments on the album: the EMS Synthi AKS (a suitcase-sized synthesizer with a painted-on capacitance-sensing strip for keys) and a Mellotron, so the music is quite analog and 70s-sounding."
If you dig the Bil Vermette "Katha Visions" LP we re-issued in 2013 or Neil deGrasse Tyson's reimagining of the Cosmos series and hypnotic, meditative synthesizer space music then hop to it gang cuz these Geodesium records were made to be played at planetariums! How much more specific can you get? You want space music? Of course you do, so grab these pulsing platters of cosmic sonics immediately! These will not stick around for long so act fast! OUTTA THIS WORLD RECOMMENDED.
Original 1981 Stock!!!
The ever diligent P-Rex diggers have unearthed yet another batch of original stock LPs of minimal synthesizer compostitions. We were able to obtain the first two albums by the one and only Geodesium directly from the group's in-house label Loch Ness Productions. Get the full scoop from the label here:
"Double Eclipse, the second Geodesium album, was produced in 1981. NASA used some of the selections during its TV coverage of the Voyager Encounters at Saturn and Uranus. It consists of nine electronically-realized musical compositions. Of the five original works, one is a clever bouncy tune featuring two electronic "dancers" and a synthesizer rock drummer. Two space-music-style pieces musically explore the inter-galactic reaches. Another work is a driving and intense rocker, and one is the world's first electronic-disco-bluegrass combination — a real toe-tapper! There are four transcriptions: J. S. Bach and Johannes Pachelbel for the classical music enthusiast, and two contemporary works by Wilke Renwick and W. Francis McBeth."
If you dig the Bil Vermette "Katha Visions" LP we re-issued in 2013 or Neil deGrasse Tyson's reimagining of the Cosmos series and hypnotic, meditative synthesizer space music then hop to it gang cuz these Geodesium records were made to be played at planetariums! How much more specific can you get? You want space music? Of course you do, so grab these pulsing platters of cosmic sonics immediately! These will not stick around for long so act fast! OUTTA THIS WORLD RECOMMENDED.
Detroit's finest export these days might just be unruly rock n roll and not cars, and if you need proof of that look no further than Protomartyr's new lp, "Under Color Of Official Right", their second album and debut for Hardly Art.
"Protomartyr’s taut, austere rock was incubated in a freezing Detroit warehouse littered with beer cans and cigarette butts and warmed, feebly, by space heaters. Despite the cold, Protomartyr emerged with a sound that is idiosyncratic but relatable, hooky but off-kilter, and economical in a way that elicits comparisons to possible antecedents like Pere Ubu or The Fall as well as local contemporaries like Frustrations or Tyvek -- all of which have combined here to make one stunner of a sophomore album, and the band's first for Hardly Art. (All LPs include a lyric zine! All LPs also include a download code.)" - Hardly Art
AGREED! This is one killer RnR platter, mixing equal parts gritty angular post punk, 80s guitar bruised college rock and dark melodic art punk into one melancholic and messy album that'll get its hooks in you right away. Sure we hear The Fall and Pere Ubu, but also "Chairs Missing" era Wire, some 100 Flowers, a lil' Swell Maps and perhaps some Magazine or Bauhaus (a refreshing list of influences for sure). The sparse production, jagged rhythmic edge, earworming guitar riffs, and anthemic / dystopic songwriting all come together on their second lp in a succinct and urgent way that's been catching our attention here at the shop. "Under Color Of Official Right" definitely hits that sweet spot back when PUNK and POST PUNK were one and the same: a time when underground RnR was still NOISY, RULE BREAKING, UNKEMPT, CATCHY and DANGEROUS like it always should be. So yeah if yer a fan of angsty post punk, downer rock and/or rustbelt punk this new Protomartyr lp is just waiting to make yer ears happy. CRANK IT UP CUZ THIS ONE HELLA RECOMMENDED!!!!!!!!!
