July 15, 2003
RAAAAAAK!
Remember that ridiculous list of hip projections I put together a couple of months ago? I was practically praying that I'd "recoup my investment". Well, that's life isn't it, the more you put in, the more you get back. I've had it in spades, been lucky recipient of some totally fantastic inside tips, makes one feel a little like Delia Smith when she goes (of practically every recipe); "Thanks to Gaston, head chef at Le Caprice for this delightful chilled almond cream soup." Actually I've been hustling people for these jolies bijoux. And what's on the menu? Rock, my little darlings!
There's something deeply self-assuring about checking out Rock. That's what I started out listening to, and to go back to it is extremely validating. As if to say, YEAH, those values you held as a 15-year-old were spot-on. And yep "Dance" music doesn't negate all that stuff (the real agenda at stake with the mildly daft Cobain/Morosey/Sylvian Dizzy Rascal parrallels). Reach for Rock!
Thorns:Thorns
Nick Terry, former Editor of Terrorizer, and Slayer fan hipped me to this. Thorns is the vehicle for Snorre W. Ruch, Death Metal legend from Oslo, Norway. He, notoriously, was the getaway driver for a gang of nasties who murdered one of their competing metallers. Yeah I know some of the "beefs" on the blogs get out of hand, but this is ridikulous! I DO like this record, particularly "Shifting Channels" which is dead sludgy and "Vortex" with it's Penderecki-styled male choir and churning sooper-stoopid riff. Snorre plays "Electrically powered Devices" too, they call them synths in neighbouring Estonia. The lyrics are delivered in classic cobwebbed monster style. It's about a million times more entertaining than the latest Indie Rock toss, and you sense that, even though it's clearly not meant to affect YOU (the diehard crew ONLY), there's something at stake. Or at the stake.
Lightning Bolt:Lightning Bolt
And this came courtesy of Portugal's very own Jose Marmeleira, but I also noticed the charming David Stubbs thumbing them. All their artwork looks like this, a pile up of Bosch and Baselitz. I can identify too the guiding hand of Mary Jane. This isn't death-metal like the other two releases. Jonathon Selzer, another former editor of Terrorizor, has that genre pegged as THE font for interesting Rock of the last 5 years. He may be right. The Strokes-stoked garage-band revival was stymied by being too avowedly retro. Other sources of new Rock? Japan has plenty but it's too hippy and feedback-fixated for me (granted I've only heard some Boredoms, Magical Power Mako and Acid Mothers Temple) and the whole God Speed You Black Emperor!!!/Jackie O Motherfucker wotsit, while cool, is too worthy and too beatnik. Making friends here! Lightning Bolt sound like a supremely cultured metal band. Their spiritual forebears are more Creedence Clearwater Revival than Iron Maiden, though they share with metal those insanely quick arpegiatted riffs (NOT stabs, riffs). You're going to howl at me, but the structure of the LB stuff reminds me of Bach's Brandenburg Concerto, particularly those extended, clockwork harpsichord solos. I got pilloried by the massive for this the other night ("11" and that), but it's all ringtones at the end of the day.
Old Man Gloom:Seminar III.
Last, and best of all was this, which I was tipped off about by the aforementioned Selzer, who looks like he may be reneging on the promise of sending me a batch of OMG mp3s (no worries mate, I've bought it now!) This record is utterly brilliant. Once again, like the Thorns fantastically portentous, a refreshing change from the flippant. This lot are from the States, but once again defiantly Metal. While the artwork of the Thorns screams Fincher's "Seven', these svelte sci-fi graphics, gracing sepia-tinted shots of the grand canyon, place it somewhere else iconographically, perhaps Tarsem's "The Cell". The one half-hour track on Seminar III is a slow-burning bad vibe epic peppered with movie samples. The first 5 minutes or so you don't hear anything at all! This crew have carried on where Black Sabbath's first LP left off. I'm going out on a limb here, but this may be as an important record as Tortoise's debut. SLOOOOOW and HEAVY! Highly reccommended.
The curious thing about these records is that, while they're not as instantly gratifying as dat latest garridge 12", I keep finding myself returning to them to listen a little more closely. They're cussed wee bastards, difficult to get a handle on, and that's a high compliment.
Posted by Woebot at July 15, 2003 04:25 PM