Labels: House of Girth
Review by: Kunal Nandi
Oof! To these knackered, wax-encrusted ears, this is pure joyful filth. Big, loud, highly complex, instrumental, math-rocking, metal action that can stand proudly beside Keelhaul (most of the time), The Fucking Champs, Don Caballero, Breadwinner, Blind Idiot God, Loincloth, The Object At The End Of History and so on and so on and so on. Despite having a simple guitar and drum-based duo, it sounds very little like The White Stripes, with a swirling maelstrom of dense riffing, wailing solos and stunning drum work combining to create an initially confusing, but eventually addictive mix, aided by some intelligently used effects and a little studio trickery perhaps. To be quite frank with you, this kind of thing restores my faith in independent music. Where else would you get the ante on what you can achieve musically raised so damn much whilst still having such total guilt-free entertainment? Finally, it should be mentioned that Hector Stentor is some sort of freethinking Seattle-based collective formed from the ashes of the short-lived cult label Obtuse Mule (home to Sicbay, Janmichaelvincentcarcrash, Craw, Apes Of Wrath and various other complete and utter nutjobs) and that this CD is encased in yet another completely undecipherable Stephen O’Malley sleeve design. Totally rifftacular.