Vice July Record Reviews

Local H
12 Angry Months
Loud Shout Months

8 This is the least angry record I have ever heard. In fact it sounds like complete contentment. If being content means playing the same beautiful blend of urgent, frenetic, Makers Mark drenched guitar and drums alt rock that you have been peddling for the last twenty years and not giving half a shit if anyone notices or not that is.

Pivot
O Soundtrack My Heart
Warp

1 What’s going on Warp? First Lidell’s indulgent second now this? In fact this one is a bit like a prog Lidell jamming with a Jean Michelle Jar covers band. I want to soundtrack my heart with charred sorrow and unrepentant joy. Not the Weatherspoon’s Allstars.

Annihilation Time
Tales Of The Ancient Age
Reflection

9 Just before these guys were meant to come play our pub last year the guitar player broke his arm (probably falling of the roof of a squat on bad acid and flat beer or something) and they never made it out of the US. Then about an hour before they were due to play the Old Blue last month the bar manager got a call from customs saying they had been busted at Dover with all their gear and merch trying to sneak in on holiday visas. If they weren’t so damn perfect we’d hate them. But they are.

Das Pop
Das Pop
Ugly Truth

0 Has it really come to this? Bands formed on some warped production line in Ghent solely to sell straight to crisis stricken post-natally depressed sows in Tesco queues? The label this thing came out on couldn’t be more apt. Yikes.

The John Baker Tapes Volume 1 & 2
John Baker
Trunk

10 Ohkay, ohkay so our UK Editor may have got a big shout in the liner notes of the 10th anniversary compilation but the only reason we have a constant, bulletproof boner for everything that Trunk puts out is that it is invariably 67 million carat gold. Here you get near enough the complete work of the most overlooked of the Radiophonic Workshop’s ‘Holy Trinity’ (alongside Delia Derbyshire and David Cain duh) spread over two exquisitely presented discs. The Dial M For Muder theme is worth admission alone.

Coffins
Buried Death
20 Buck Spin

8 Despite the pathetic artwork this is near enough the best bashing together of Covenant-era Morbid Angel and Eyehategod sludge these ears have heard in a long while. How do the Japs get it so right while the Yanks continue to peddle meathead metalcore for hockey players to rape girls to on spring break in unstoppable quantities?

Oneida
Preteen Weaponry
Jagjaguwar/Brah

4 There has been a whole heap of hustle and bustle about this record being the first release in a ‘triptych’ of albums that herald a change in direction for Oneida. First up: only a Sound Projector subscriber would ever refer to a record as belonging to a ‘triptych’. Even ‘trilogy’ is pushing it. It’s just a record dude. Secondly: it sounds like every other Oneida record ever. Not that that is a bad thing. But it’s hardly going to spin the world on its ass eighth time around is it?

The Savage Republic
Savage Resurrection
Mod Lang

9 Holy crap, this sounds like the best lost 60’s psych record you’ve never heard before and spent your whole life wishing existed hidden in obscurity waiting for a reissue that will change your life forever. Oh wait. It is.

Cannabis Corpse
Tube Of The Resinated
Forcefield

9 From the band name to titles like “Mummified In Bongwater” to the mock fall of the Roman Empire meets Jabba's Palace played out by little skunk creatures artwork this is pretty perfect. It’s basically just Municipal Waste singing about weed instead of beer but it’s so good it almost made me want to start smoking, getting up at 4, laughing at daytime TV and eating cold pizza all over again. Almost.

Doom
Rush Hour Of The Gods
Violent Change

8 This collects the Brum crust titans 96 LP and their side from the split 10” with Cress. Despite being late period it still sounds great. If you swan about with Amebix and Antisect patches on your vintage big E denim jacket and don’t know Doom then you are exactly what the band sing about on the 12th track of this collection and you need to go stick your head in an oven.