The future holds some serious changes for WTCHS. I first came across these guys as part of a four way split on Out of Sound Records and loved their choice to record their dark post-punk in such a damaged, raw style. They stood out being so committed to this extreme sound, like Lust For Youth, it was a deliberate choice, especially now hearing this latest. They way they used fidelity as another element in setting this mood is headed into the studio this coming year and I'm really interested to hear how this sound is going to evolve. A good split should also introduce a similar band to fans of either side and Das Rad take a crisper studio approach, full of dense layers of a different kind.
A-Side's WTCHS "Overkilmer/Some Girls" fades into feedback or just a single sine wave tone that leads straight to damaged underwater rock, the greatest pop song swirling under a haze of pop psych peering out of the fog of an old AM radio or from the neighbors walls next door sounding even more mysterious but so catchy. They have a great sense of dark pop while adding fuzzy layers of mystery not letting you in to clearly witness this like a heavier dense Blessure Grave. I was listening to the bandcamp version of the tracks and this could only be improved on a lathe cut. It's throbbing the whole time, buried guitars that run right into what must be the "Some Girls" part of this that's even darker in new ways. Never in obvious goth elements this even has a crazy energy with straining vocals that become another instrument unintelligible, just vocalizations at this point. Fucking great, I love this texture especially since they seem to be putting things to vinyl based directly on their live experience. Wish they would venture south from Hamilton, Ontario to the busted ceiling tiled space of Death by Audio.
Das Rad's side opens with "Space Cake" which is infinitely clearer and punchy, blowing in with dirty fuzzed out and glitching guitars over sludgy vocals in this faster tempo offering. Still impossible to make out lyrics under the levels of distortion but like peeling off the earplugs after WTCHS. Things aren't much more optimistic though this comes off as a more aggressive vision of the apocalypse. Feedback opens "Heavy Flow" and a tom tambourine beat in some kind of doom psych? That's a new one. Heavy guitar chunks and more feminine and melodic vocals, a buried hazy English sound with lots of 'da da's' even, how'd they end up in this underwater sunny place in an endgame that Jesus and Mary Chain started. This is super catchy, a pumped up MBV, insanely dense with subdued roaring like a muffled crowd of wild animals. The echo evenly bouncing between the headphones I'm envious of the amount of sound they can tame here. The tracks barely have time to fade out trying to get these both on this single. Excellent tracks from both should lead to a repress or even full lengths soon?
Pick this up from Perdu Records if they have any left.
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