Got this single in from the guys in Zulus, who, according to Still Single are a duo from the Bay area who've existed as a number of different projects, this latest having been born along with a move to Brooklyn. Fugedaboutit.I love the package these guys put together, a brown kraft paper screened sleeve, folded over and taped together housing a mini poster holding the single in there. Breaking the seal on the 45 hole covered by a zulus sticker, can't miss it, ultra handmade and even better, by playing it, you end up changing the whole thing...a little bit of destruction...but here at 7inches we don't hang singles on the wall like some kind of untouchable modern art, no you got to get in there and scratch a few records, drop them on the unswept floor, or drag a fingernail along the grooves trying to lift it off the platter. Oops.
I'm saying all of this because it speaks to where this super scuzz, hardcore duo sounds to be coming from...they aren't getting precious with this sound either. Even if the first track "Heatwave" has a backup surprisingly melodic 'ooooooo', like a Lightning Bolt meets Wavves pop sludge. It's a brief one, and they get down to business on "Illiterate Eyes", the vocal delay is ultra heavy on everything, lots of milliseconds just distorting the hell out of anything recognizable. When the pounding drums and distortion get going on this repeated chorus section towards the end, it's that nice overwhelming pummel....like staring into that supernova on the sleeve.
Duo's represent that kind of perfect union, you have someone to work off of, really it's all you need in a lot of ways...a beat, and a melody in some form or another. It free's a group up to pursue these really specific lines of sound, way past their end game. For essentially working with that overwhelming wall of mass sound, there's a lot of melody and structure here, not the things you usually encounter when 'harcdore' is mentioned. Mayyors were that example to me of a combination of those influences, but just so full of dread and volume, it doesn't make for easy listening....Zulus is something you can come back to, that isn't trying to drive the listener away, they're cutting some broad strokes with the huge sound, but it's coming together when you step back into something bigger. Like that guy that draws those 3D chalk images on the ground.
But awesome.
Wizard Mountain seems to be down at the moment, but these guys have this single available on their own site.
They're also playing at Public Assembly this Saturday October 1st.
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