31 March 2016

RECOMMENDATION #100 - VERY BON

DESMADRADOS SOLDADOS DE VENTURA - A PINT OF WINE
JON COLLIN - INTERVAL MUSIC
YERBA MANSA - THE OTHER THING
very bon 2016, editions of ?

not sure i've ever done back to back triple recs, this one sky high courtesy VERY BON outta manchester run by EDWIN STEVENS (IRMA VEP, DSDV) - i've been anxiously awaiting these tapes since the popped up on my radar in early feb

A PINT OF WINE emerges from a meditative daze, first the bass and drums congeal into a killer groove, then the guitars -three of em- shake off the haze one at a time, well two of em do, that third stays pretty well messed up for the duration of this 50 min marathon - DSDV blast their freaked out vibe hard n fast but they don't push it over the edge where other free rock heads have staked claim - instead DSDV narrowly navigate their sound beyond a select secluded networked cluster of claustrophobic basements and outer limits venues and devoted fanatics like me, with a trajectory that nearly parallels stoner psych standard bearers like BARDO POND, COMETS ON FIRE and EARTHLESS - if the idea of a coked up road burnin hour long rendition of COMETS' "beneath the ice age" feat SUNBURNED HAND appeals to you as much as it does to me then you absolutely need this

INTERVAL MUSIC finds fringe folk guru and WINEBOX PRESS curator JON COLLIN at his most enlightened, supplemental to his guttural out of body revelation BURNT MONDAY, this is more honed in and deliberate - meticulously manipulating sound beyond my articulation if not my understanding - "UN-EFFECTED E BOW AND ACOUSTIC GUITAR PIECES RECORDED DEAF" - it's therapeutic, if not spiritual, maybe kinda like KRAFTWERK's "harmonika" covered by FAHEY informed and supplied by TIMOTHY LEARY - the j card has a diagram that "ACTS AS A TRACK LISTING AND SIMPLIFIED SCORE FOR THE TAPE" - as much as i revere COLLIN's discography, i think this is his best work yet

THE OTHER THING is YERBA MANSA's debut (i think), a psychotic rock power duo of DSDV members EDWIN STEVENS and ANDREW CHEETHAM - there's some overlap of course, but YM aren't just DSDV lite, they run tangential in some ways, decidedly more psychedelic in some traditional sense, or rather less in the typical free rock fashion via brute force, more directly channeling druggy proto punk with some no wave noise rock thrown in for good measure - the mixture blends and bleeds into SUNBURNED HAND territory and thus the overlap, but this isn't free rock - YM are not focused on "the jam" - this isn't merely freaked out chaotic chug for it's own sake, this is more tonal and textural, more elevated, more in common with folks like TOM CARTER, GOWN and SIX ORGANS - i'm not so sure this isn't the best tape of the bunch







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