Quemada Records just hit a milestone; their tenth release, three years after their first single from Australia's Drunk Elk came out they turn their sights to Detroit's Roachclip. This four piece recorded this latest like their full length on a Tascam 4track, those must be nearly becoming extinct and I'm reminded how great they can sound in their own special way at capturing a truly live sound like this. They always leave something to the imagination and force a weird participation to fill in the blanks of this booming sludgy psych.
On A-Side's "Masters Den" you even hear the tape windup, it's just getting up to speed - warbling in and out when the needle comes into this crazy rhythm with a big ancient organ plowing through the cast of characters in monotone frankensteining through the scene. A seizure kind of beat, all hitting in unison; the vocal, the kick, bass and organ that sounds plugged right into the line in on this recording. The rest of the band crowded together in a rehearsal space just ready to make this jam a reality. Big finish of the whole thing falling apart. Like the scuzzy freeform sounds of Crawl Space or any of those cathartic psych acts from Feeding Tube. Feedback and organ lines continue on, shakers implode, speakers melt, the snare and tambourine become one. A harmonica is wailing, the air slowly escaping from his tiny metal lungs. A solid, messy twisted metal pile that you can't turn away from.
B-Side's "Cast of Clowns" gives away that cassette sound whirring up to speed and the organ is huge, a lot like Times New Viking here and their overblown piled on sound, but these guys operate in the kind of psych darkness that only a basement would really be able to bring. Like Los Llamaradas, it's murky and hissing with looped sounds, the organ blowing everything out peaking. The layered deep echo vocals become something from another time, from another kind of rock space. They aren't playing by the same set of rules, there's a few dozen songs that could be extracted out of this haze like this super delay that could be a sample. The tape is even jammed up and slowed down - maybe something was already on it. Were they recording over a found tape?! You always get your best song right in the middle of a religious sermon.
Great interview with these guys over on the ride a dove blog, this can be purchased through Quemada Records direct.
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