Yet More Singles...

Five more gangs of salty customers trying to make our hair stand on end.

Drunkdriver – Knife Day b/w January 2nd
(Fan Death)

Good grief, this is horrifying. Starting with a long drawn out scream, “Knife Day” launches into a pile of sloppy, violent, sociopathic hardcore being blasted out the other end of a wind tunnel and EQed to death, harsh frequencies pummelling like a wifebeater’s fat fists through the tape hiss. “January 2nd” meanwhile sounds like a giant pig monster just stumbled upon punk club and started fucking it with slow, grinding determination as the punks within scream in terror and confusion. I know it’s naïve of me to listen to a basement hardcore/noise record and think “gee, these guys are pissed off about something”, but gee, these guys are pissed off about something.

http://www.myspace.com/drunkdriverusa
http://www.myspace.com/fandeathrecords

Florida – Icarus b/w Once Yr In It (Shadowplay)

Spooky homemade mutant rock here from…. well, Brooklyn actually – fancy that. These guys have a pretty distinctive sound going on though, centred on ominous, slowed-down vocals combined with normal speed instruments and quite crisp recording, to eerie and dramatic effect. Really strong song-writing here too; ‘Icarus’ could almost be some bastardised Duran Duran/Depeche Mode hit, veering briefly toward a declamatory Sabbathian sing-song metal chant on the chorus, with backing that clanks and hisses more like some lost Pere Ubu-worshipping art-punk ensemble from the dawn of time. I know that doesn’t really make much sense as a description, but neither does trying to jam a band like this into any of my critical reference point boxes, so you’re just going to have to put up with it. On the other side, ‘Once Yr In It’ is a more strung out and distant affair, with slithering hand percussion and low acoustic strumming, like an admirable attempt to fuse the sound of this decade’s surplus of avant/creepcore ensembles with, like, y’know, a band that does songs, until a truly majestic lead guitar rises from the campfire halfway through to take us home. When I say ‘majestic’ of course, I also mean creepy. Everything on this record is creepy, and creepy is good. It’s all out-of-time, hard to nail down, like someone’s attempt to make a haunted band. Basically, if you like the wonderful vintage Halloween photo on the cover, you’ll probably like the music within. It’s an inspired image/sound combo.

http://www.myspace.com/plasticpalms

Girls of the Gravitron – Malthusian Love Song EP (Boom Chick Records)

Band from Memphis. Debut 7”. The song on the A-side immediately hits all the warning buttons, sounding on the surface like a hideous, don't-give-a-damn basement-fi fuck-around that makes me want to yell YOU GUYS ARE JUST SPOILING IT FOR THE REST OF US, and go and listen to something recorded with more than one microphone. It would have been unwise of me to do that though, as the two offerings on the B-side soothe and surprise in an extremely pleasant manner, causing me the return to the A with fresh ears. Recording is still needlessly muffled, over-compressed scuzz throughout, but there are some really beautiful, twisted tunes going on here, sung by a guy who sounds like a gently lethargic alien hillbilly and backed up by a rollicking good band mixing foot-tapping garage rock n’ roll with some lovely, light-of-touch psychedelic slide guitar moves zapping out of the top of the mix like shiny eagles, sounding for all the world like some previously unheard wonder-juice guzzling ’67 session excavated from the International Artists vault alongside all those 13th Floor Elevators and Red Crayola rarities. And you’d better believe that’s a recommendation. Third song ‘Violent Appetites’ gets a particular thumbs up from me. I wish the vocals weren’t so distorted, because I’d like to hear the lyrics that go with the oddball song titles, but that aside this is effortless freak-rock goodness, and well worth a listen.

http://www.myspace.com/girlsofthegravitron
http://www.myspace.com/boomchickrecords

Topaz Rags – Tarot Harem (Not Not Fun)

Yes, Tarot Harem. If that doesn’t give you a pointer re: where these guys are coming from, nothing will. As you might expect, this initially sounds like music to accompany somebody’s tiresome idea of a sinister, LSD-fuelled Mansonite occult happening. Apparently the first 78 copies came with a free tarot card taken from the Crowley deck. What larks! “Tarot Harem” mixes disembodied Pocahaunted style female moaning with clattering, vaguely free drumming and a hypnotic five note bass figure that’s really annoying me, because it sounds like a total rip from another piece of music that I know I know really well, but I just can’t place it.

(Oh yeah, I’ve got it now – it’s, er, the guitar bit that underpins “Your Cells Are In Motion” by Jackie O-Motherfucker? Clocking that and then actually bothering to write it down perhaps counts as the geekiest moment of my life thus far. I mean, I don’t even like Jackie O-Motherfucker, aside from that one song, that I used to listen to a lot on a mix CD. Christ.)

Anyway, the other song here, “Black Honey” (ooh, those titles), is effectively identical to “Tarot Harem”, but with the bass and drums hitting a different, ‘slowly trailing victim through the streets’ kinda groove, and the addition of sparse, creeping piano notes. As on Pocahaunted’s recent ‘Passage’ LP, (which I couldn’t really get into), the free-form vocals here are largely devoid of effects and allowed to roam free, rendering them deeply silly in places. I mean, it’s just a few steps away from throwing in some whistling wind and clanking chains from yr sound FX records really, isn’t it? Still, all adds to the atmosphere I guess. And, without wishing to sound like an old grump, it’s actually the straightforward instruments rather than the ghostly groanings that are doing the bulk of the work in Topaz Rags, and they’re doing it very effectively too, and with a lot more subtlety than you’d have reason to expect. Do I hear some ghosts of distant LA noir jazz creeping in around the edges….? Let’s hope they stay around the edges; that’s where they work best. Peer at Topaz Rags from the right angle and you might even find them soundtracking some Maya Deren instead of some Ted V. Mikels. Even within the mightily oversaturated realm of avant-freaky creepscapes, this stands out as a pretty decent and well thought out addition to the catalogue of such things. Nice work.

>http://www.myspace.com/topazrags
http://www.notnotfun.com/

Vermillion Sands – In The Wood (Fat Possum)

I’ve played this single many times of recent, and I can’t quite get an angle on it, although I think it is very, very good and unusual. Hailing from Italy, and winning points from the outset for the J.G. Ballard reference, Vermillion Sands are led by one Anna Barattin, who possesses a raspy, gutsy singing voice that’s faintly reminiscent of Drugstore’s Isabel Monteiro. Having said that, I just listened to some old Drugstore stuff to check, and actually there’s not THAT much similarity, but nonetheless, the comparison may serve to give you some idea of where Vermillion Sands are coming from, emotionally speaking. This 7” sees Barattin and her band bust through three wonderfully idiosyncratic, low-key garage-folk-punk tunes that combine a slightly eerie rural ambience with ramshackle, Basement Tapes good cheer and choruses slow n’ steady enough for you to sing along before you’ve even clocked the words. Powered along by clanging hollow-body guitars, rough fuzz riffs, tambourine and meaty Vox organ swirl, these are some really great songs that demand repeated listens, their exuberant three-sheets-to-the-wind execution belying some dark and foggy feelings buried beneath. “I always felt sick and sad and lonely,” Barattin sings on the chorus of ‘May’ as the band whoop it up behind her, “if only I could move from my bed”. In the wood indeed. Getting more compelling as it gets more familiar, this one’s a flat-out winner.

http://www.myspace.com/thevermillionsands
http://www.myspace.com/fatpossumrecords

Labels: Drunkdriver, Florida, Girls of the Gravitron, singles reviews, Topaz Rags, Vermillion Sands