Labels: Main Lake Records
Review by: Andy Malcolm
Looks like MH has written about Charlie R a couple of times already so I am going to pinch this one. Especially as it sounds rather good. They have a pair of songs here that bound with plentiful energy. “Sunburn Posture” kicks things into gear and there are moments here that are reminding me of good ole 90s emo (what else), with great harsh / bellowed vocals and kicking melody, somewhere between bands like Elements of Need and Mainspring. If your record collection is full of screen printed 7″ singles and bands that had 2 releases on labels that had 4, then you probably are ready for this sort of thing. “The Friction Disappears” lurches off in an entirely different direction mind you, sneaking off-key and not quite in the manner it seems most obvious to present. It hammers into a big Pixies-ish finale, except with those emo vocals from earlier. Entirely behind what CR is up to here. Given they are from Michigan I wonder if they are named after the former Detroit Lions wide receiver. Seems he has had a troubled life since dropping out of the NFL.
Stutter have elected to record their first song next door, although they had the window open. It has a really grating fuzz to it, like a fast-load game on a ZX Spectrum. The second song is of similar lo-fidelity. This stuff is totally acceptable to me, it’s just not a type of thing that I am particularly going to rave about, and I can’t quite find the references that might be applicable either, other than like a really broken Dinosaur Jr.