Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Black Ladies on stationary heart



A long long time ago I heard about a new label putting out a casiotone / fox pauses split single ... they were called stationary heart, and I was smitten by their ultra limited release...the sleeve was really great and when it finally showed up in the mailbox it was like getting this amazing piece of art.
Now it's finally joined on the 7" shelf by the black ladies..., thanks to Stationary Heart's website redesign and this round of latest releases it looks like John is going all out since last time I had a look.

I love these experiments by default like this. Two guys playing together...bass and drums, probably just friends and the sound develops, they might decide to play a show and feel like adding a guitarist for another layer of sound. But after a while there's no guitar that fits, or isn't around/just doesn't work. Well then fuck it...this is what we ended up with and what we want to do. And I'm not even saying that's what happened...and they are already anthems, at the fucking champs agility level, head shaking, you have to move... and hear where this beat and pounding bass is going.

Two grunts kick it the A-side and the drums are working overtime, really straining to get
every crash to fill in any holes super frantic...this is the definition of the sweat filled basement show you're just blown away at.
I like the bass is really forward but all grinding away, not delicate, probably no picks, you would just end up with bloody stumps on those huge strings. Or miles of tape wrapped around every night. To say nothing of the drummer who must be reaching across every piece of the kit for the another tom fill...it's punishing period.

The sleeve is amazing, stationary heart really puts together a nice package, it's thick cardstock with heavy ink printed...not offset, but silk screened... must be, these great browns and reds...a bunch of passes and then a hand cut square right out of the middle of the back. The vinyl is this weird green/grey mess, and I think this edition runs every color in between. A beautiful thing.
The drumming is insane I just have to say it again, there's an untold number of riffs and changes, there's no telling where it's going, the slower moments are even more rewarding, where they give in to a kick/snare groove because it's just too good to pass up... but only for a few measures and it's onto somewhere new.

The B-side The real Jurassic park starts with a cymbal roll and this side is even heavier if that's possible with nice stuttered pauses and more changes with slightly electronic sounding bass this time. But it doesn't try to dress it up with any weird sounds or recording tricks. It's straightforward performance. The bass sounds like it switches between that rat pedal fuzz and some kind of bubbly underwater sound just slightly...only after a million listens.It's heavy and relentless, the stuff that could drive trucks or blast apart rocks in the quary. No doubt they will leave countless bands starting up in their wake.

All instrumental by the way, if you couldn't tell...and I can't get enough of this sound. Aces. This would be a show to catch live for sure, and somehow this recording captures that. All on your pathetic, sad turntable at home in your safe, comfortable livingroom.
Wimp.

$6 at stationary heart.

Listen to Naked Caveman track A1...

3 comments:

  1. Anonymous12:28 PM

    damn, it took that label a long time to put out another 7"! that FP/CTFTPA 7" was in the early DNT distro, haha.

    -Tynan

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  2. I really thought that was a casiotone or fox pause label for that single.....those were the days.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous5:30 PM

    Stationary Heart also put out Double Dagger's Ragged Rubble CD and LP between the releases.

    ReplyDelete