Labels: Criminal IQ
Review by: Rob Tyers
This is my first review for this site, mainly to praise a record that it seems not enough people have taken notice of. On paper, this shouldn’t be as good as it is – a ‘garage punk’ double album at over an hour long, with a strong psych and 70s rock influence. “You mean it’ll sound like Gas Huffer meets Ultimate Spinnach?” Thankfully, no. While comparisons to bands do give you some idea of what to expect – ‘Glimpes of Another World’, for example, brings to mind both Hawkwind and The Stooges, while other parts remind you of Mudhoney or the best ‘Killed By Death’ bands – one thing that’s great about this album is that it stands alone; Chicago’s VEE DEE have their own personal style and they’re into their own thing.
This aesthetically colourless album, the follow-up to their great first LP and few EPs, is like a culmination of all the good rock music being produced between 1960 and 1980, without being self-consciously retro or kitsch (see: Witchcraft). The music isn’t cheesy or corny, and they’re not restricted by any mission statement that says “We will sound like X” (not the band, which might be good), nor do they indulge in some sort of dressing up game to fit their prescribed style (literally occuring in the case of most bands – cool tasche, man!) They’re just pretty weird guys playing music they like, ignoring the barriers artificially set-up between genres. I think they share this attitude with the mid to late 80s SST crowd, producing the kind of hard ballsy experimental but memorable music that won’t (or shouldn’t) just be forgotten, but that seems to only appeal to relatively small numbers of people. Musically, the closest similarity I can think of is to mid-period Wipers. It’s not that it really sounds like them, but it has a similar feel – they’re both unafraid to extend songs with exploratory psychy sections (see: ‘Youth of America’), and both focus on strong guitar-led songwriting. Plus, it’s got real soulful vocals, there’s no other way I can put it. Like The Wipers, ultimately this is music to feel (devoid of pretension). It’s druggy but not really sleazy, hard but not abrasive. They’re influenced by the pre and proto-punk musical landscape, most songs lasting 5 or 6 minutes. This is not needless self-indulgence; the songs just couldn’t be any other length, they need this extra space to breath. Just listen to songs like ‘City in Heat’ and ‘Into The Void’ – these are the sort of classic songs that you just can’t believe hadn’t been written before now.
Unlike many other double LPs, all four sides are as good as each other and it’s devoid of filler (unlike, for example, Zen Arcade…that last side I can do without). Also, despite it’s length of over an hour it doesn’t get tiresome. If you can get past the hyperbole above, I highly recommend it.