After a killer cassette and two mind melting singles, Australia's blown out riffologist's Eastlink are dropping their proper full length debut via In The Red. And let's just say we've been waiting on this one for quite some time!
"“This self-titled debut album from rigid Melbourne, Australia, punks Eastlink is the best full-length to come from Down Under since… well, since the last really incredible release on Aarght!, RIP Society, Homeless or any of the other countless many fantastic new labels that have appeared from that country over the past few years. For those paying attention, it’s hard to not be blown away by the amount of amazing records coming out of Australia lately. This album is no exception and stands near the top of the heap.
“Eastlink features members from a variety of bands you already love like Total Control, UV Race, Repairs, Lakes and Straightjacket Nation, just to name a few. With four guitars, one drum and two vocalists, they splinter and drench two-note monotonic riffs the rest of us never noticed were right under our noses the whole time. These nine tracks range from harsh, crude, fuzzed-out one-note pounders to droning soundscapes.
“Like The Fall, Eastlink clearly digs repetition and aren’t afraid to use it as a weapon. For these Australian doper-scuzz minimalists, it’s all about the riff. Heavy, punishing, repetitive riffs where four guitars lock on to something intense and primal for four minutes. The band simply pummels tracks like ‘Overtime’ and ‘Spring St.’ into the ground, pausing only for an occasional frenzied guitar solo or blast of feedback and noise. Meanwhile, ‘Dinnerchat’ and ‘Thatcher’s Dead’ are weirdo space-rockers that wouldn’t sound terribly out of place on Brain Records in the ’70s.”
—Jay Hinman, Dynamite Hemorrhage"
This is the part of our review where we totally fucking agree with Dynamite Hemorrhage's kind words, tell you that In The Red head honcho Larry Hardy might've just put out our favorite album of the year and start babbling once again about how fucking killer the Aussie music scene is and continues to be!!!!! So why haven't you clicked the shopping cart logo yet?
Just one look at the band lineup is sufficient to get us pulling out our credit cards, cuz we've been Total Control/UV Race junkies for years. But it doesn't stop there....they have four guitarists strangling and wringing their 6 stringers to create whole new wavelengths of spaced out, psych damaged primal noise. "Eastlink" is the sound of krautrock's motorik rhythm flipped inside out Mad Max style, ugly down under scuzz punk stretched to its cosmic limits, minimal chord post punk that the UK only dreamed about back in the early days, and a kind of art damaged post garage / post spacerock / post psych promise/hinter land where you won't find any extraneous musicians, studio flourishes, stupid genre gimmicks and PR exclamations. Here is where we could name drop bands they sound like, but that would be beside the point cuz this might just be the NOW SOUND. AND DEFINITELY A HIGHLY AND SUPREMELY RECOMMENED JAM THAT WILL SIT ON YER TURNTABLE AND REFUSE TO LEAVE. So yeah don't miss out, we tried to tell you so!
Paint-peeling, scuzzy debut album from these Philly malcontents on their new home of In The Red Records! This one's already ripped our faces off a few times since we dropped it on our turntables, so hearken to ITR's "eye in the sky":
“Take it from me, orbitin’ the Earth over ’n’ over ain’t all it’s cracked up to be. When I was asked to hop on board a Soyuz headed to the International Space Station (Assignment: Critical Observation), I reckoned this’d be the trip of a lifetime. Space, the final frontier. And how ’bout that view? But now I feel like I’ve been here that long—a lifetime, that is. You know, the food ain’t much to speak of, plus I gotta constantly make sure I don’t make no crumbs, else they might fuck up our air breathin’ filters. Crumbs! The things one learns. Drinkin’ ain’t no fun neither, ’less you get your jollies sippin’ daquiris from a straw out a plastic bag, like some swishy, doe-eyed Deadhead. And don’t even get me started on hygiene issues! I believe I could take a life for a proper bubble bath right about now (I miss my ducky, too). Which is all just a lumberin’ yet apropos segue to the matter at hand: this debut LP by Watery Love.
“Now, any right-minded corncob south of the Van Allen Belt knows them three precedin’ 7-inches via Richie, Siltbreeze and Negative Guestlist smacked kernels hard, and that smolderin’ ferocity has naturally been carried over here. The glow ’n’ throb what’s got got is as much the byproduct of the eternal bioluminescence of Iron Cross or Third World War as an appreciation for the corroded, fractoluminescence exuded once upon a time by Chain Gang, Slow Death EP-era Leather Nun ’n’ The Gordons. Sure, their environment might seem cold and uncarin’—even downright sociopathic—but behind that facade of David Goodis-like grimness are four sodbusters chompin’ to have a good time. When singer Richie Charles hollers “I’m a skull!” who among the masses would not rush headlong to get a lick off that boney pate? It ain’t about Rofinol, people, it’s about the roof, and how far can Watery Love raise the fucker. Unlike you dickheads, I’m sittin’ pretty in the catbird seat (what part of me bein’ out to space did you miss?) so let me say, keep it comin’! Higher ’n’ higher, nose to the grindstone and all that. Don’t worry, I’ll stop ya when ya get here. And one more thing—don’t forget to bring a six pack. We’ll need it.” —Roland Seward Woodbe - International Space Station, Outer Space, Call Sign: Alphar"
Take it from us - you don't have to be in orbit to appreciate the sonic thuggery being perpetrated on this platter; 12 solid inches of punishing, sweat-soaked, unwashed nihilism. This debut long-player comes five years after the band's first single (the brain-busting "Debut 45" on Richie), and two years after their last release (the "Die With Dignity" 7" on Siltbreeze), so in a sense we have the re-introduction to Watery Love - only fitting it includes a re-recorded version of the band's anthemic "hit" "I'm A Skull" (which somehow remains just as vital 5 years later). For the uninitiated, there's really no deviation from the band's signature sound (i.e. noisy, cacophonous pig-fuckery so feral, we're shocked it ain't from Australia), but the real head-scratcher is how these dudes have somehow upped their game here, the hooks sink deeper and cut with a serrated edge, the vocals drawl like snarling dogs on Robutussin. These dudes are the best and they have nothing to prove to you. Another feather in Larry Hardy's ever-expanding cap (dude must have an Indian headdress at this point) - "Decorative Feeding" is destined for your 'Best of 2014' list ferreals, bruh. Don't forget to cop the additional new 45 (also on ITR and in our webstore) that features absolutely killah cover versions of Breakdown's "Sick People" and The Ramones "I Don't Care"! We've been fans from day one, so it's no surprise that this one comes ONE-HUNDRED PERCENT RECOMMENDED. Don't be a chump - Get this now and you can thank us later.
CHILEAN PSYCH ALERT!!!!
Our buds at BYM Records have unleashed another set of jammers from a couple of early purveyors of the Chilean psychedelic underground scene that we're always blathering on and on about here and we are freaking stoked to crank these up fer sure! Get the background directly from the BYM folks:
"YAJAIRA features the roots of the first psych-stoner acts of the ‘90s in Santiago, Chile. Lento y Real is the cornerstone of the whole musical scene that develop in the past decade with bands such as The Holydrug Couple, Föllakzoid, The Ganjas and La Hell Gang. The drone and hum goes through the songs and finds fuzzy drones that achieves a good exit velocity taking the grinding guitars to and almost cosmic connection. Bringing slow and warm grooves, with Spanish lyrics, Lento y Real puts them in the same cabinet as Natas or Viaje a 800, but musically they fit just as well with Datura or the inevitable Kyuss." - BYM
Yajaira's "Lento Y Real" is forty odd minutes of lysergic blues fueled stoner jams in the vein of Kyuss, Harsh Toke, The Obsessed and Blue Cheer. Butt rumbling bass grooves combine with earth moving rhythms to back up blistering fuzz guitar and melodic clean sung vocals creating some classic mid-tempo stoner grooves. Hair farmer tunes fer dayz is what one will find on this import platter of sun drenched psychedelia and if you ask us it is Super Recommended.
BRAND NEW album from New Zealand scene veteran (and former member of The Terminals, Victor Dimisich Band & Vacuum) Stephen Cogle! Released on long-time NZ-flag bearer Siltbreeze Records - heed the words of LAX:
"Hold the tidings, reconnoiterers. This is a new set of songs from Stephen Cogle of Vacuum, The Victor Dimisich Band and The Terminals. Dark Matter stands with contemporaries The Renderers and The Puddle in exemplifying a “late” style of New Zealand post-punk—more concrete, more distilled.
Cogle’s vocal flourish stills reminds one of Roxy Music—a band that, recall, is only ten years older than Cogle’s earliest projects. The continued relevance of an ensemble like Dark Matter over Roxy Music can only be attributed to the richness of the musical moment that birthed it. Trusted names like Cogle, John Christoffels, John Billows, Joanne Billesdon, Nicole Moffat and Michael Daly continue into the 21st century in new combinations with new aspects to notice. But more than just an update on the Christchurch Sound, Dark Matter plays with punk nostalgia to craft an overwhelmingly romantic (with a lowercase r) pop record.
Too cat-like to be reflective, totally immersed in the garage rock impetus, their flat, gothic psychedelia is equal parts Chills, Television Personalities and Scientists, with the intimacy of Wreck Small Speakers on Expensive Stereos or Small World Experience. With a breadth of material fitting to the subject of “getting older,” Dark Matter is perhaps the most finessed document of Cogle’s vision yet."
While we hesitate to call this a more "mature" outing than The Terminals or Victor Dimisich Band, as both were from a more learned or "intellectual" perspective (at least lyrically), but there's definitely an air of stately reserve about this self-titled affair. The Roxy Music comparison is apt, particularly in Cogle's vocal delivery, but many of the songs jangle & sway heavy in the air like those mid-tempo Roxy burners. We're diggin it hard. It's on Siltbreeze, so it's pretty much a no-brainer that you need this. RECOMMENDED to the maxxx.
Thanks to the lovely folks at Drag City we are finally getting "Dizzy Polizzy" on wax! Fu-uuck yeah! Here's what we said about the original tour-only cassette back in the day:
Now we probably don't have to mention that we here at (both) shops are huge Purling Hiss fans - we released his debut LP for chrissakes - and our ears are always open for more jams from our favorite gunslinger! Mike Polizze has recorded a shit-ton of material over the years & these jams are labeled on the tape as "Recorded 2004-2009", so on the surface it may seem like you're getting a mixed bag of recordings. Much to our delight, this is a surprisingly cohesive batch of tunes that are more in the vein of the 'Public Service Announcement' LP, but with a more focused & tunefully song-based purpose. Really surprising stuff, & great to see the seedlings of the hi-stakes riffage that was to come from Polizze, particularly considering that he was balls-deep into his tenure in Birds of Maya during the bulk of these recordings - & whose stratosphere-reaching guitar wailing is a 180-degree turn from these, well - pop songs. Hell, some of these songs flat out remind us of Neil Young, Sebadoh, Ween or even The Lemonheads (and we mean that in a good way) - near-claustrophobic, lo-fi, acoustic guitar based jams filtered through Polizze's "Purple Hazed" filter - we're talkin' serious "hits" like 'She Don't Mind' 'Prelude' & 'Die High' (shit, we hope we die high - right on bro!) THIS is the tape you need to play at your next Scotch-Guard huffing party, but get this now 'cuz we only got a few & you can be sure that these are pretty limited! Do we need to tell you how recommended this shit is? We didn't think so.
The mighty Drag City Records unveils the last bits of archived material by the one and only Detroit real deal rockers, Death. Lend an ear to what Drag City let's fly:
"Yeah, Death III - who would have guessed it back in 2009? Certainly not us - and probably not Death either! Both Spiritual-Mental-Physical and this new one seem to have been uncovered after the release of the album beforehand, much to the surprise f everyone involved. Our suprise with III is that is almost as heavy and powerful as For the Whole World to See! In fact, a couple tracks are apparently additional tracks from the FtWWtS sessions, and they sound it! There are also a couple tracks from the 90s that help provide closure, as the boys reunited even when nobody was listening at the time, just out of love and respect for the thing that had never happened that has since occurred. Overall, Death III is pretty dynamite, with a few surging angle-punk jams, a couple dreamscapy odes to peace and togetherness, some rawness and lots of BOTTOM. According to the Hackney brothers, this is the last of the old material, and to us it rates with some of the best."
Death has been a P-Rex staff fave since we first heard the revelation that is "For The Whole World To See". Another soul growing dose was their "Spiritual/Mental/Physical" demo collection and now we can finally complete our collection of all things Death with this collection of all the rest of the early recordings compiled on one convenient LP. Long Live Death! Super Recommended.
Ghostly International welcomes Tobacco back to the fold with "Ultima II Massage" and here's what their saying about this special occasion:
"On his third album, TOBACCO, the Pennsylvania snake-synth-charmer deepens his approach to aural depravity. At 17 tracks, Ultima is stacked with beautifully perverse hits - from the sickly sticky Eruption, to the wobbly demon swaggerer Face Breakout, to the distorted punk spazz of Dipsmack, to the apocalyptic sepia ambience of Spitlord. You may hear disembodied bits of Boards of Canada, early Def Jam records, and Gary Numan, or maybe just public-access TV and bad VHS dubs of '80s horror flicks. Or the sun exploding and everything you've ever loved melting.
"This might be my most purposely difficult album yet," he says, "but I promise if you let it in, it can fuck you up."
Ultima II Massage. No happy ending."
It's been a hot minute since Tobacco last tweaked our brain his signature weirdness and "Ultima II Massage" shows that he's lost none of his patentedly unique je ne sais quoi. These 17 tracks are 45 minutes of digital smears, video game glitch dance party, vocoder invocations, scotch guard huff fest and given the chance this album will permanently alter yer dome. Do It!
The Swans one and only major label release gets the long overdue reissue treatment from the always on point 1972 Records. Get the full story directly from the 1972 folks here:
"The Burning World is an excellent curio in Swans’ already eclectic discography. 1987’s Children of God confirmed that Swans could indulge delicacy alongside immersive swathes of sound. In 1989, band leader Michael Gira co-produced The Burning World alongside multi-instrumentalist Bill Laswell and continued to refine his songwriting without compromising power. Jarboe’s inimitable vocal presence enhances the overall tunefulness while Gira’s own weary-but-resilient declamations ascend to towering intensity at precisely the right moments. All throughout, Gira rages against God for the sake of love, lifting the veil off darkness to reveal exaltation. “(She’s a) Universal Emptiness” finds Gira’s signature croon perfectly belied by Jarboe’s harmony, but the sauntering balladry is spiked with assaultive snare drum and a rogue chord on the verge of feeling saccharine. “Jane Mary, Cry One Tear” sends Gira’s voice to seemingly impossible depths. The slight quiver and momentary roll of the tongue that marks his style is on full display, as if the merest detail of his evocative delivery is toiled over in advance. It begins with the minimal guide of an acoustic guitar and builds to ardent fury, all the while honoring the intricate minutiae in his voice. The Burning World resolves Swans mournful rock sensibility with some of the most pure hooks Gira ever sang over, but his indelible assets as a singular songwriter are wholly intact and unmistakable."
1989's "Burning World" finds Swans eschewing their trademark volume and dissonance instead to present a dark work of quieter yet maybe even more disturbing sonic experimentation. This is probably as close to "accessible" as the Swans ever got and the pepperings of world music provided by the production work of Bill Laswell further skew that accessability. Michael Gira's ever mournful baritone is here in all its morose glory as is Jarboe's unique harmonies and the gentler approach to the songwriting hints at what would come later in Gira's Angels of Light output. Acoustic guitars never sounded so beautifully creepy. "Burning World" features a cover of Blind Faith's "Can't Find My Way Back Home" and closing track "God Damn The Sun" is easily one of greatest songs Swans ever penned. "Burning World" is a unique obscurity in Swans' daunting back catalog, but it is one that deserves another listen for sure. Super Recommended.
Aagoo Records just dropped a walloping slab of super experimental and heavy distorto psych rock in our laps with their latest release, Inutili's "Music To Watch The Clouds On A Sunny Day." We're not sure where these dark horse Italian rockers came from (the stratosphere perhaps?) so let's get the word straight from the label:
"INUTILI returns with a new 12” LP on Aagoo Records. From the city of Teramo, Italy comes this heady, hypnotic, improvisational rock. The plural of inutile, Inutili means pointless, useless, or unprofitable, yet their music is anything but. Terminal Boredom says, “A galloping bass line leads the way unwavering for five minutes plus as the guitars thread and weave around it, slowly working their way into a full tilt Itallio space war of cosmic carnage”. As well, their album Satori (Bat Shit/Goodbye Boozy) was praised on The Styrofoam Drone: “Snarling guitar shards lead the way for a majority of the 15 minutes, sending us through a barrage of warbled, dagger-like shredding that does not go down easily.” Inutili’s 12” is comprised of only two songs. The A-side “Fry your Brain” starts out otherworldly. Dreamy sequences lead into a sweet, spaced-out, riffed-up jam that ends up pounding your face off (in a ‘Blissful the Oceanic’ kinda way). The B-side is a bluesier epic that starts out peaceful; but by the seven minute mark, a flurry of timeless of psych disaster is fully unleashed. I can listen to some bands play for hours—Trad Gras Och Steiner, Pharaoh Overload, Oneida—and now I can add one more to the list: Inutili." - Aagoo
Yes!!!!!! "Music To Watch The Clouds" is just the kind of epic, blown out, psych madness we always need around at the shop. Coming from the same murky corner of the universe as King Blood, Birds Of Maya and Cosmic Dead, Inutili riffs and drones their way through two monstrous face melting tracks of acid bent RnR goodness worthy of comparisons to Parson Sound, Les Rallizes Denudes, Hawkwind and Monoshock. No joke! "Music To Watch The Clouds…" warps and slithers its psychedelic way through long passages of guitar bashing/manipulating on the level of Afflicted Man, Groundhogs, Blue Cheer and even Funkadelic insanity. All the while cosmically motoring on through kraut / space rock, here and there resurfacing somewhere close to the electrified blues that gave birth to the speed freak urges of the power trio 70s, yet always on the cusp of detouring deep into the nether regions between the feedback meditations of "Sister Ray" and avant minimalism. So needless to say this kinda loud lysergic in-the-red whirring RnR would make Julian Cope proud, and for sure earn a few accolades at this year's end. Yeah all you heady rockers better get yer fix quick. CUZ THIS ONE'S INSANELY RECOMMEDED!!!!!!! And sure to fly outta here!!!!
CHILEAN PSYCH ALERT!!!!
Our buds at BYM Records have unleashed another set of jammers from a couple of early purveyors of the Chilean psychedelic underground scene that we're always blathering on and on about here and we are freaking stoked to crank these up fer sure! Get the background directly from the BYM folks:
"In the early days of the Chilean psych underground, two art students join forces to create a new musical project called ACID CALL. The band was formed in early 2007 by IGNACIO GATICA (aka BLOK) and MARTIN KAULEN (ex-WATCHOUT!) .The Duo combines influences like Silver Apples, Suicide, Young Jazz Rebels, Sun Ra, Add N to (X), Wu-Tang Clan and Santana, creating a hypnotic and repetitive sound using mixers, cheap keyboards and bass. During their brief career, the band did some gigs, generating lots of attention from the small circle of people who used to attend the shows. In this period, the New Chilean Psych Underground was emerging. Acid Call. Cindy Sisters, WatchOut!, La Hell Gang, The Psychedelic Schafferson Jetplane, Holydrug Couple and Follakzoid, were part of a brilliant generation of bands deserving international attention. And finally, international exposure started. Terminal Boredom and WFMU were the first ones who fell in love with Acid Call. Sadly, their members started to be focused in another projects leaving the band in a period of undefined hibernation. Some recordings in digital format circulate just in circles related to the band members, but finally, a posthumous 7” is here. “Clap ya Feet” and “Puerta 7” are real testimonies of the real potential of this duo and also represent a unique moment in the history of the Chilean underground music." - BYM
These two tracks from Chile's Acid Call really are such a tease… Hypnotic hand drums and a pulsing bass groove with inter spliced keyboard passages create a Tropicalia flavored dance-y vibe while the utterly alien infused vocals really spread on the weird here. A truly magical little dose of psychedelic obscurity awaits all who enter here. Here's hoping more material from this elusive duo can be sourced in the near future cuz this single is the shit! Beyond Recommended.
