Three Good Albums

Posted by Martin R on October 5, 2007
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Three good albums, listened to in the car when driving to & fro the Djurhamn dig.

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Silverbullit, Arclight (2004). This is dark and Gothamesque rock, sort of the Cure + the Stooges + Kraftwerk. The band searched high and low until they found a drummer who could and would play like a drum machine. One of the best Swedish records of the decade.

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Olivia Tremor Control, Black Foliage (1999). The Pet Sounds era Beach Boys discover musique concrète just as the water supply becomes heavily contaminated with mescaline. Completely otherworldly yet drenched in the sweetest vocal harmony.

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Skip Regan/Opia, Welcome To My Head (2000). Catchy and bluesy psychedelia with Lennon-soundalike guitar virtuoso Skip Regan singing about women and psychoactives. Available for free on-line from the talented stoner web developer himself.

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Comments

  1. #1 Jonathan Jarrett
    October 7, 2007

    That Olivia Tremor Control album is just one of the best things in the world right now; surprising coincidence that we’ve both taken this long to come across it. There’s about ten minutes towards the end they could maybe have pruned for maximum impact but beyond that it’s 100% gorgeous and strange.

    The Silverbullit review has me twitching in two directions at once. The checkpoints all sound compelling, but if they wanted a drummer who plays like a drum machine… why didn’t they just use a drum machine? Surely the point of a drummer is to add the spice and spontaneity that’s so hard to fake with a machine? To my overcritical ear this is kind of code for saying `this drummer plays like a robot’. But the way you say it makes it sound as if it should be more positive than that. Could you describe a bit more?

  2. #2 Martin R
    October 7, 2007

    I agree, the long ambient bit toward the end of Black Foliage isn’t very good.

    As for Silverbullit, I believe their aesthetic idea is that a human drummer playing like a machine sounds neither like a machine nor like a human drummer. It’s very good music, powerful and ecstatic. Get it in illicit ways to check it out and then order a CD if you like it!

  3. #3 Jonathan Jarrett
    October 7, 2007

    I sort of know what you mean by that aesthetic. I’ve certainly seen drummers who could make their bands sound alternately like techno sensations and like rock powerhouses: Richard Chadwick of Hawkwind, on his night, would be the best of them. I shall have to do as you suggest. It’s always reassuring when someone’s musical checkpoints seem to cross one’s own enough that one can trust their reviews!