2/12/2006

He'll show you games to play

Well, NYC is under two feet of snow ... but being cooped up in the apt. ain't so bad, gives me plenty of time to zone out and listen to tunes while I watch some Olympic cross-country skiing and luge finals ...


For some reason the Pretty Things are never mentioned in the same breath as the Kinks, Who, Beatles, Stones, etc., but their British invasion-era rock n roll sounds just as great. They not only had swagger, but also a big experimental streak, inventing the concept album on S.F. Sorrow and toying with dissonance and weird song structures.

The Pretty Things - "Baron Saturday"



I have an almost limitless appetite for V.U. worship of the hammer-one-chord-into-oblivion variety. Currently filling that bill is Dins, the full-length debut by New York's Psychic Ills (out on The Social Registry -- home of Blood on the Wall, Electroputas and other awesomeness). The album is populated by Eastern-influenced drones, white noise soundscapes, and overdriven MBV / krautrock jams cutting through what seems like intentionally hazy and humid production. Listen close during "Another Day, Another Night" and the bells play you a melody.

Psychic Ills - "Another Day, Another Night"



It's alive .... Sunbomber throbs and pulses with more of Excepter's organic electronic improv shaman rituals. On a few of this EP's tracks, the aimless vocals are too loud in the mix for my taste; I prefer the ones like "Bridge Traffic" where it's more of a subliminal undercurrent to the echoes and beats. Out on 5RC.

Excepter - "Bridge Traffic"