RVNG enlists one half of infamous Glasgow duo Optimo for perhaps their most ambitious release to date. This is actually a double-deck release comprised of one 10″ and one 60-minute mix. The “10 Inches of Fear” feature four Twitch re-edits from the catalog of seminal anarcho-punk label Crass Records by bands like Flux of Pink Indians(1), Honey Bane(2), The Mob(3) and Zounds(4) - all licensed and approved by the artists, no less! The accompanying 22-track CD - “60 Minutes of Fear” - is an extension of the idea, featuring jams from Twitch’s formative musical years: “The mid to late 1980s was the period when I really started to buy a lot of records. I was particularly obsessed with (mainly) American bands like Sonic Youth, Big Black, Swans, Butthole Surfers, Flipper, etc. etc.” In addition to those artists, the mix also features tracks by Crass, Sun City Girls, The Ex, Minutement, Husker Du, Black Flag, Screamers, Fatal Microbes, Poison Girls and more. The whole thing is presented in a hand-screened sleeve and includes a big 20″x20″ fold-out poster with a “personal punk rock history compiled by Twitch.” Only 1,500 pressed.
June 14th, 2009
You can’t typecast Type Records. Just when you think you’ve got them pegged as black-clad mongers of doom after the recent releases by Svarte Greiner and Xela, what do they do? Release a pop record, of course. Well, not exactly; this new self-titled album by City Center takes the same sideways look at the pop song as Panda Bear took on Person Pitch. Like Panda Bear, Fred Thomas is hitherto better known for his work as part of a larger collective; in Thomas’s case Saturday Looks Good To Me. With City Center the album he takes their melodic template and scribbles all over it in dayglo colours until it is barely perceptible beneath the layers of layers. That’s just the type he is.
City Center recently released a split 7″ with Grouper, and they do share with Liz Harris a tendency towards dense organic-sounding compositions with wells of reverb and well-buried vocals. But there the similarity ends; I doubt you’d find Harris adding perky percussion, and jauntily-strummed guitars to create fizzy, scuzzy pop bangers. That is just what Thomas is capable of: “Summer School” bounces along youthfully bashing woodblocks like it burns itself into a blurry tizzy. This contrasts starkly this with the preceding track, a smear of distorted organ drones entitled “You Are A Force”. The album is at its best when it finds imaginative ways to force these two quarrelling lovers to marry. If you think that the nagging guitars and multiple layers of tumbly vocals within “Young Diamond” sound a bit too, well, Animal Collective, then just wait till a gun is put to their head and they have to repeat vows to a middle section of violin and blistering guitar eruptions.
The hazy melodies and blurry vocals of City Center’s album should be soundtracking many a joyous summer day. By playing against type, Type have played a blinder here.
Take from: mapsadaisical
MySpace: citycenternyc
June 14th, 2009
