Labels: Kill Shaman
Review by: Andy Malcolm
If this was 1995 it would have been a fairly obscure but nonetheless respected release on Gravity. If this was
1999, this split would have come out in over the top packaging and been on 31G. But here we are, it’s 2004 and
this is a self released single with a simple cover, and it’s limited to 300. Times they are a changing.
Die Princess Die is not the daughter of Die, Emperor! Die! They actually are connected to the band Camera Obscura
(the one that had an album on TMU), and they have a sound that comes right out of San Diego circa a number of
years ago. All distorted vocals, posturing, sassed out attitude, but with a handy knack of playing good music
too. “Spear Horse” spirals around haphazardly whilst one guitar part is repeated over and over. “GW Grenade”
follows with an urgency and a lot of tight pants wearing. For something that sounds like it should be oh so
extravagantly hip, it’s woefully out of fashion, but hey! If you appreciate Harriet the Spy or One Eyed Richard
and the Goddamn Liars or Antioch Arrow or when they weren’t making a shit LP, then you might like this too.
Simple.
The Manifolds do a side too, and they make good bedfellows for DPD, they are all about a big sonic wall of
guitars and uber distorted vocals and possibly a bit of keyboard thrown in for good measure. There was a time
when there must have been a tonne of bands out there doing this sort of thing, but that time has past. So it
sounds different to most records I have listened to in the past couple of years at least. “Sedition” follows and
they undistort the vocals and rock out in a Drive Like Jehu avec Harriet the Spy fashion.
I enjoyed this split rather. It’s spazzy, noisy rock and roll obviously intended for and made by people with far
better dress and hair sense than I, but what the hey.