Posted in Whathaveyou on March 11th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats will release the instrumental conceptual soundtrack LP Nell’ Ora Blu on May 10 through Rise Above Records. It’s their first studio LP of any sort since 2018’s Wasteland (review here) and manifests the threat made when the UK garage doom innovators released their live album, Slaughter on First Avenue (review here), in 2023.
It isn’t the band’s first foray into atmospheres inspired by vintage Italian cinema, but at least on paper it’s inarguably the deepest they’ve gone in exploring it. Described by the PR wire below as instrumental save for voiceovers by Edwige French (All the Colors of the Dark and scores of others) and Franco Nero (he was Django in that crucial series of westerns and has appeared in over 150 movies, among them Die Hard 2), it’s an immediate departure for a band whose harmonies and hooks have always been a huge part of their approach. No doubt that’s the idea.
I’ll expect not to expect what I’m expecting, then, and you might want to do likewise, but I don’t think Uncle Acid getting weird and cinematic is going to hurt consider that’s another huge part of what they’ve always done. Lean this way, lean that way. Six years after their last record, it feels like a big shift, but it makes its own kind of sense.
The PR wire has it like this:
UNCLE ACID & THE DEADBEATS Announce New Album ‘Nell’ Ora Blu’ Out May 10th via Rise Above Records
Pre-Orders Available Soon!
Poised to stand out as the most radical album of UNCLE ACID & THE DEABEATS’ storied career, ‘Nell’ Ora Blu’ is a true tour-de-force of dramatic ingenuity. Inspired by the dark, mysterious, and often bloody Italian Giallo film scene, Kevin Starrs took a detour and created his own storyboard to play along with and the result is a beautiful and suspense-filled instrumental soundtrack…for a non-existent film.
Devoted fans will undoubtedly recognize the UNCLE ACID fingerprints here but this startling left-turn will also present a formidable challenge to even the most open-minded riff-heads. Like a tense and bewildering fever dream, ‘Nell’ Ora Blu’ is a vivid, lysergic excursion like no other.
“I know something like this might have limited appeal, but who cares?” says Starrs. “Most of what we do has a limited appeal anyway! It’s just a real mix of different styles that I like. There are no singles or ‘hits’. Instead, it all just flows along one thing into the next. You can think of it like blood seeping from a wound. It’s continuous. By the end of it, you’re left exhausted. It’s hard work for the listener. We don’t do easy listening!”
Unusual guest stars such as giants of the Italian film underground, Edwige Fenech and Franco Nero, present exclusive dialogue interspersed between tracks, contributing to a unique listening experience that throbs and shrieks with horrific intent.
Starrs explains: “It’s a tribute to 70s Italian cinema. It’s a story about people who decide to take the law into their own hands. Things get pretty dark straight away and of course, it doesn’t end well for anyone. It has elements of grimy poliziotteschi (Italian crime/action films) and classic Giallo (Italian cinema’s revered horror/sexploitation movement). Once I decided to do everything in Italian, I made a list of actors that I wanted. Franco Nero and Edwige Fenech were the first names I thought of. Two legends that had never been paired together before. I contacted their agents and both actors were interested in the idea, so we set it up from there.”
Having completed the project and been exhilarated by its creation, Starrs now has tentative plans to bring some of this incredible music to the morbid masses. What started as simply a new UNCLE ACID project, has evolved into a true project of passion bringing together the wonderful worlds of music and film in one dark, enthralling soundtrack for a film we can only wish to be actually watching.
‘Nell’ Ora Blu’ Track List: 1) Il Sole Sorge Sempre 2) Giustizia di Strada – Lavora Fino alla Morte 3) La Vipera 4) Vendetta (Tema) 5) La Bara Resterà Chiusa 6) Cocktail Party 7) Il Tesoro di Sardegna 8) Nell’ Ora Blu 9) Il Chiamante Silenzioso 10) Tortura al Telefono 11) Pomeriggio di Novembre Nel Parco – Occhi che Osservano 12) Il Retorno del Chiamante Silenzioso 13) Solo la Morte to Ammanetta 14) Il Gatto Morto 15) Guidando Veloce Verso la Campagna 16) L’Omicidio 17) Resti Umani 18) Sorge Anche il Sole 19) Ritorno All’Oscurità
‘Nell’ Ora Blu’ will be available on Vinyl as a double LP, CD, and for digital download on May 10, 2024, via Rise Above Records. Pre-orders will be available soon.
Posted in Reviews on October 2nd, 2023 by JJ Koczan
It’s been quite a morning. Got up at five, went back to sleep until six, took the dog out, lazily poured myself a coffee — the smell is like wood bark and bitter mud, so yes, the dark roast — and got down to set up this Quarterly Review. Not rushed, not at all overwhelmed by press releases about new albums or the fact that I’ve got 50 records I’m writing about this week, or any of it. Didn’t last, that stress-free sit-down — one of the hazards of being perfectly willing to be distracted at a moment’s notice is that that might happen — but it was nice while it did. And hey, the Quarterly Review is set up and ready to roll with 50 records between now and Friday. Let’s do that.
Quarterly Review #1-10:
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Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, Slaughter on First Avenue
Recorded over two nights at First Avenue in Minneapolis sandwiching the pandemic in 2019 and 2022, Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats‘ 14-song/85-minute live album, Slaughter on First Avenue, is about as clean as you’re ever likely to hear the band sound. And the Rise Above-issued 2LP spans the garage doom innovators’ career, from “Dead Eyes of London” from 2010’s Vol. 1 (reissue review here) to “I See Through You” from 2018’s Wasteland (review here), with all the “Death’s Door” and “Thirteen Candles” and “Desert Ceremony” and “I’ll Cut You Down” you can handle, the addled and murderous bringers of melody and fuzz clear-eyed and methodical, professional, in their delivery. It sounds worked on, like, in the studio, the way oldschool live albums might’ve been. I don’t know that it was, don’t have a problem with that if it was, just noting that the sheer sound here is fantastic, whether it’s the separation between the two guitars and keys and each other, the distinction of the vocals, or the way even the snare drum seems to hit in kind with the vintage aspects of Uncle Acid‘s general production style. They clearly enjoy the crowd response to the older tunes like “I’ll Cut You Down” and “Death’s Door,” and well they should. Slaughter on First Avenue isn’t a new full-length, though they say one will eventually happen, but it’s a representation of their material in a new way for listeners, cleaner than their last two studio records, and a ceremony (or two) worth preserving.
Swedish retro soul rock forerunners Graveyard are on their way to being legends if they aren’t legends yet. Headliners at the absolute least, and the influence they had in the heavy ’10s on classic heavy as a style and boogie rock in particular can’t be discounted. Comprised of nine cuts, 6 is Graveyard‘s first offering of this decade, following behind 2018’s Peace (review here), and it continues their dual-trajectory in pairing together the slow, troubled-love woes emotionality of “Breathe In, Breathe Out,” “Sad Song” on which guitarist Joakim Nilsson relinquishes lead vocals, the early going of “Bright Lights,” and opener “Godnatt” — Swedish for “good night,” which the band tried to say in 2016 but it didn’t stick — setting up turns to shove in “Twice” and “Just a Drop” while “I Follow You,” closer “Rampant Fields” or the highlight “Just a Drop” finding some territory between the two ends. The bottom line here is it’s not the record I was hoping Graveyard would make, leaning slow and morose whereas when you could break out a groove like “Just a Drop” seemingly at will, why wouldn’t you? But that I even had those hopes tells you the caliber band they are, and whatever the tracks actually do, there’s no questioning them as songwriters. But the world could use some good times swagger, if only a half-hour of escapism, and Graveyard are perhaps too sincere to deliver. Fair enough.
The thing about Hexvessel that has been revealed over time is that each record is its own context. Grown out from the black metal history of UK-born/Helsinki-residing songwriter Mat “Kvohst” McNerney, the band returns to that fertile ground somewhat on the eight-song Polar Veil, applying veteran confidence to post-blackened genre transgressions. Songs like “A Cabin in Montana” and “Older Than the Gods” have some less-warlike Primordial vibes between the epic melodies and tremolo echoes, but in both the speedy intensity of “Eternal Meadow” and the later ethereally-doomed gruel of “Ring,” Hexvessel are distinctly themselves doing this thing. That is, they’re not changing who they are to suit the style they want to play — even the per-song stylistic shifts of 2016’s When We Are Death (review here) were their own, so that’s not necessarily new — but a departure from the dark progressive folk of 2020’s Kindred as McNerney, bassist Ville Hakonen, drummer Jukka Rämänen and pianist/keyboardist Kimmo Helén (also strings) welcome a curated-seeming selection of a few guest appearances spread across the release, always keeping mindful of ambience and mood however raging the tempest around them might be.
Bookended by its two longest songs in “Drink Some More” (8:44) and closer “Letter Full of Wine” (9:17), Munich-based troupe Godsground offer seven songs with their 47-minute third long-player, working quickly to bask in post-Alice in Chains melodies surrounded by a warmth of tone that could just as easily be derived from hometown heroes in Colour Haze as the likes of Sungrazer or anyone else, but there’s more happening in the sound than just that. The melodies reach out and the songs develop on paths so that “Balance” is a straight-up desert rocker where seven-minute centerpiece “Into the Butter” sounds readier to get weird. They are well at home in longer forms, flashing a bit of metal in teh later solo of the penultimate “Non Reflecting Mirror,” but the overarching focus on vocal melody grounds the material in its lyrics, and that helps stabilize some of the more out-there aspects. With the roller fuzz of “A Game of Light” and side B’s flow-into-push “Flood” finding space between all-out go and the longer songs’ willingness to dwell in parts, Godsground emerge from the collection with a varied style around a genre center that’s maybe delighted not to pick a side when it comes to playing toward this or that niche. There’s some undercurrent of doom — though I’ll admit the artwork had me looking for it — but Godsground are more coherent than bewildered, and their material unfolds with intent to immerse rather than commiserate.
Ambition abounds on Sleep Maps‘ Reclaim Chaos, as the once-NYC-based duo of multi-instrumentalist Ben Kaplan and vocalist David Kegg — finds somebody that writes you riffs like “Second Generation” and scream your ass off for them — bring textures of progressive metal, death metal, metal metal to the proceedings with their established post-whathaveyou modus. Would it be a surprise if I said it made them a less predictable band? I hope not. With attention to detail bolstered my a mix from Matt Bayles (Isis, Sandrider, etc.), the open spaces of “The Good Engineer” resonate in their layered vocals and drone, while “You Want What I Cannot Give” pummels, “In the Sun, In the Moon” brings the wash forward and capper “Kill the World” is duly still in conveying an apparent aftermath rather than the actual slaughter of the planet, which of course happened over a longer timeframe. All of this, and a good deal more, make Reclaim Chaos a heady feast — and that’s before you get to the ’00-era electronica of “Double Blind” — but in their reclamation, Sleep Maps execute with care and make a point about the malleability of style as much as about their own progression, though it seems to be the latter fueling them. Self-motivated, willful artistic progression is not often so starkly recognizable.
A reminder of the glories amid the horrors of our age: Dread Spire‘s Endless Empire — am I the only one who finds it a little awkward when band and release names rhyme? — probably wouldn’t exist without the democratization of recording processes that’s happened over the last 15-20 years. It’s a demo, essentially, from the bass/drum — that’s Richie Rehal and Erol Kavvas — Cali-set instrumentalist two-piece, and with about 13 minutes of sans BS riffing, they make a case via a linear procession of crunch riffing and uptempo, semi-metal precision. The narrative — blessings and peace upon it — holds that they got together during the pandemic, and the raw form and clearly-manifest catharsis in the material is all the backing they need. More barebones than complex, this first offering wants nothing for audio fidelity and gives Rehal and Kavvas a beginning from which to build in any and all directions they might choose. The joy of collaboration and the need to find an expressive outlet are the best motivations one could ask, and that’s very obviously what’s at work here.
A roiling post-metallic churn abides the slow tempos of “Torch Bearer” at the outset of Mairu‘s debut full-length, Sol Cultus, and it is but one ingredient of the Liverpool-based outfit’s atmospheric plunge. Across eight tracks and 49 minutes, the double-guitar four-piece of Alan Caulton and Ant Hurlock (both guitar/vocals), Dan Hunt (bass/vocals) and Ben Davis (drums/synth) — working apparently pretty closely over a period of apparently four years with Tom Dring, who produced, engineered, mixed, mastered and contributed saxophone, ebow, piano and additional synth — remind in their spaciousness of that time Red Sparowes taught the world, instrumentally, to sing. But with harsh and melodic vocals mixed, bouts of thrashier riffing dealt with prejudice, and the barely-there ambience of “Inter Alia” and “Per Alia” to persuade the listener toward headphones, the very-sludged finish of “Wild Darkened Eyes” and the 10-minute sprawl of “Rite of Embers” lumbering to its distorted gut-clench of a crescendo chug ahead of the album’s comedown finish, there’s depth and personality to the material even as Mairu look outside of verse/chorus confines to make their statement. Their second outing behind a 2019 EP, and again, apparently in the works on some level since then, it’s explorational, but less in the sense of the band figuring out who they want to be than as a stylistic tenet they’ve internalized as their own.
At first in “Hope Shines in the Autumn Light,” Brazilian instrumentalist heavy post-rockers Throe remind of nothing so much as the robots-with-feelings mechanized-but-resonant plod of Justin K. Broadrick‘s Jesu, but as the 14-minute leadoff from the apparently-mostly-solo-project’s three-song EP, O Enterro das Marés (one assumes the title is some derivation of being ‘buried at sea’), plays through, it shifts into a more massive galaxial nod and then shortly before the nine-minute mark to a stretch of hypnotic beat-less melody before resolving itself somewhere in the middle. This three-part structure gives over to the Godfleshier “Bleed Alike” (6:33), which nods accordingly until unveiling its caustic end about 30 seconds before the song is done, and “Renascente” (7:59), in which keys/synth and wistful guitar lead a single linear build together as the band gradually and with admirable patience move from their initial drone to the introduction of the ‘drums’ and through the layers of melody that emerge and are more the point of the thing itself than the actual swell of volume taking place at the same time. When it opens at about five minutes in, “Renascente” is legitimately beautiful, an echoing waterfall of tonality that seems to dance to the gravity pulling it down. The guitar is last to go, which tells you something about how the songs are written, but with three songs and three different intentions, Throe make a varied statement uniform most of all in how complete each piece of it feels.
Well guess what? They called the first track “Punkstarter,” and so it is. Starts off the album with a bit of punk. Blind River‘s third LP, Bones for the Skeleton Thief corrals 10 tracks from the UK traditionalist heavy rock outfit, who even on the likewise insistent “Primal Urges” maintain some sense of control. Vocalist Harry Armstrong (ex-Hangnail, now also bassist of Orange Goblin) belts out “Second Hand Soul” like he’s giving John Garcia a run for his pounds sterling, and is still able to rein it in enough to not seem out of place on the more subdued verses of “Skeleton Thief,” while the boogie of “Unwind” is its own party. Wherever they go, be it the barroom punkabilly of “Snake Oil” or the Southern-tinged twang of closer “Bad God,” the five-piece — Armstrong, guitarist Chris Charles and Dan Edwards, bassist William Hughes and drummer Mark Sharpless — hold to a central ethic of straight-ahead drive, and where clearly the intended message is that Blind River know what the fuck they’re doing and that if you end up at a show you might get your ass handed to you, turns out that’s exactly the message received. Showed up, kicked ass, done in under 40 minutes. If that’s not a high enough standard for you in a band recording live, that’s not Blind River‘s fault.
Rifftree of life. Rifftree‘s fuzz is so righteously dense, I want to get seeds from it — because let’s face it, riffs are deciduous and hibernate in winter — and plant a forest in my backyard. The band formed half a decade ago and Noise Worship is the bass-and-drums duo’s second EP, but whatever. In six songs and 26 minutes, they work hard on living up to the title they gave the release, and their schooling in the genre is obvious in Sleepery of “Amplifier Pyramid” or the low-rumbling sludge of “Brown Flower,” the subsequent “Farewell” growing like fungus out of its quieter start and “Brakeless” not needing them because it was slow enough anyhow. “Fuzzed” — another standard met — ups the pace and complements with spacey grunge mumbles and harshes out later, and that gives the three-minute titular closer “Noise Worship” all the lead-in it needs for its showcase of feedback and amplifier noise. Look. If you’re thinking it’s gonna be some stylistic revolution in the making, look at the friggin’ cover. Listen to the songs. This isn’t innovation, it’s celebration, and Rifftree‘s complete lack of pretense is what makes Noise Worship the utter fucking joy that it is. Stoner. Rock. Stick that in your microgenre rolodex.
Posted in Whathaveyou on June 20th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Pretty stoked on the idea of an Uncle Acid live record. That’s all well and good. I’ve been lucky enough to see the band a couple times — not in a while, admittedly — and they’ve always been an experience. I wonder how the songs will come across without the surrounding darkness, the low-to-absent lighting, staticky tvs behind, and the air of the audience’s anticipation for each individual riff, never mind entire songs. Slaughter on First Avenue comes from two shows in the same place in Minneapolis, recorded on either side of the pandemic, in 2019 and 2022.
And I bet it’s great. What, a band like Uncle Acid is gonna put out a live record if it’s a dud? Not likely. They’re not at a level where things like this happen by accident — that is, they’re not just throwing a thing on Bandcamp just to do it; there’s time and money involved — and reading through the copious narrative below that came courtesy of the PR wire, I’m of course drawn to the last paragraph where it says a new studio album, will happen and will see release without warning. Fair enough. Not like they need the hype. I’m glad it’s a thing they’re saying is going to happen, not the least because it’s the inevitable first question here, even though the answer doesn’t actually do much to change the marker’s position from ‘could happen at some point maybe’ when it comes down to it.
For now you can revel in the live version of “Dead Eyes of London” from their very first LP, 2010’s Vol. 1 (reissue review here), and sit tight for about a month till Slaughter on First Avenue arrives. You’ll make it.
Onward, to more words!
UNCLE ACID & THE DEADBEATS Announce New Live Album, ‘Slaughter on First Avenue’ Out 7/28 on Rise Above Records
Share New Single “Dead Eyes of London”
UNCLE ACID’s reputation as one of the most devastating and authentically psychedelic live bands on the planet became impossible to dispute, not least when they found themselves supporting the immortal Black Sabbath on 16 dates of their sold out reunion tour in 2013. Until now, however, the band’s unique and mind-melting live show has never been captured for posterity.
‘Slaughter On First Avenue’, the first official UNCLE ACID & THE DEADBEATS live record, is a furious and righteous document of Kevin Starrs and his henchmen at the height of their unearthly powers. With performances taken from two separate shows at the same venue – First Avenue, Minneapolis – in 2019 and 2022, it’s an 86-minute career retrospective that crackles with malicious intent.
14 songs deep and proudly devoid of gimmicks or distractions, ‘Slaughter On First Avenue’ is a riveting and raw account of UNCLE ACID in full flight. From early classics like “I’ll Cut You Down” and “Death’s Door” (both from ‘Blood Lust’), to more recent works of lysergic aggro like “Shockwave City” (from ‘Wasteland’) and sinister epic “Slow Death” (from ‘The Night Creeper’), this amalgamation of two fiery and unforgettable live shows has a mesmerising momentum all of its own. As Kevin Starrs explains, ‘Slaughter On First Avenue’ is a purposefully rough-hewn snapshot of two moments in time.
“People have been asking for a live record, and sometimes it’s nice to give people what they want. Especially if you follow it up with something they definitely don’t want! Overall it’s a very raw sounding recording, and that’s just how it was on the night. There was no specific reason for choosing the first show, other than some guy just turned up and offered to record it, so we let him! It’s a proper live record with all the mistakes kept in.”
“Tonight you will be subjected to an all-out audio assault that will begin here shortly. There will be no respite from this until we release you. The group will show no mercy, and will likely not communicate with you. There will be no dynamics and a complete disregard for expectation. It will all sound the same. Do you understand?”
The greatest bands exist out of necessity and UNCLE ACID & THE DEADBEATS fit that description to a cobwebbed tee. Led by singer/guitarist Kevin Starrs, the Cambridge-born masters of occult doom and psychedelic brutality have carved their own singular furrow since 2009. If they didn’t exist, we would have to invent them.
Defiantly dwelling in their own curious corner of the heaviness spectrum, UNCLE ACID & THE DEADBEATS have conjured a series of grimly spellbinding albums, starting with 2010’s ‘Volume 1’ debut and its spiky, shadowy successor ‘Blood Lust’, which marked the start of the band’s close relationship with Rise Above Records. Critically lauded masterworks ‘Mind Control’ and ‘The Night Creeper’ emerged in 2013 and 2015 respectively, and their most recent opus, the bleakly macabre ‘Wasteland’, garnered much effusive praise in 2018.
“I think one of our strengths is that most of what we do live is the exact opposite of what’s expected at a rock show,” says Kevin Starrs. “There’s no warm chit-chat, no rehearsed anecdotes, no pleasantries, no running around. It’s so dark you can’t see our faces, and sometimes we play with our backs turned. It shouldn’t work, but it does. We just lock into the music and feed off the crowd. Some people still want all that old-time stage banter stuff and want to feel loved, which is fine, but I think a cold relentless hammer attack on the senses works better for a band like us.”
“The second show had a few different songs so it made sense to add those in,” he adds. “The first show was better, though. I remember the crowd was pretty wild that night. The second show was more subdued and a bit looser. That was just as gigs started happening again, so I think people were still a bit cautious. Either that or all the wild ones had died!”
A throwback to the days when live albums were magical things, rather than cynical stopgaps, ‘Slaughter On First Avenue’ is a jolting dose of dark electricity and psychedelic terror. Swollen with the greatest of riffs and performed with grit, power and haughty disdain, it loudly confirms that UNCLE ACID & THE DEADBEATS have the raw, fuzzed-out power to drag everybody into their bewildering, bewitched vortex of doom. A dazzling, devilish squall to mark the beginning of a new chapter, ‘Slaughter On First Avenue’ also clears the decks for this band’s next malevolent move. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.
“Yes, There will be another record which will hopefully appear at some point without warning or explanation,” Kevin Starrs avows. “It will be completely different to anything else we’ve done. You can think of it as a late night detour. Its appeal will be extremely limited but that’s OK… ‘When you’re slapped, you’ll take it and like it!’”
‘Slaughter on First Avenue’ Track List: 1. I See Through You 2. Waiting for Blood 3. Death’s Door 4. Shockwave City 5. Thirteen Candles 6. Dead Eyes of London 7. Pusher Man 8. Ritual Knife 9. Slow Death 10. Crystal Spiders 11. Blood Runner 12. Desert Ceremony 13. I’ll Cut You Down 14. No Return
A certain portion of Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats‘ ultimate impact on underground and/or heavy rock will forever be tied to their second album, 2011’s landmark Blood Lust (discussed here, also here), but as the UK outfit mark the 10th anniversary of that LP’s follow-up, 2013’s Mind Control (review here), a revisit seems warranted. Or, at least one would if I’d been able at any point in the last 10 years to get some of these songs out of my head.
By the time Uncle Acid — fronted and steered by guitarist/vocalist Kevin R. Starrs (anyone remember finding out who it was?), the band just off a May tour that made headlining stops at Desertfest in London and Berlin and Soulstone Gathering in Poland — got around to releasing the nine-track/50-minute Mind Control, the secret was out. Even I knew about them by then, having put off listening due to annoyance at the hype in 2011. Stupid, but true. I don’t know how many pressings of Blood Lust LPs burned through the Rise Above Records offices (which in my head are Barad Dûr in Mordor but probably are just part of Lee Dorrian‘s house) between 2011 and 2013, but I’m sure it was plenty. They were immediately at the forefront of underground consciousness. It was stunning. They’d put out Vol. 1 (reissue review here) in 2010 in an edition of something like 30 CDRs — and yes I’d love one, thanks for asking — but once heavy-heads got wind of “I’ll Cut You Down” and “Death’s Door,” they were everywhere. All of a sudden, a whole lot of bands wanted to sound like a Hammer Horror VHS that’d been buried in a moist basement for 20-25 years, but somehow also watched religiously.
Can’t blame them. It’s not often a genre based at least in some part on sounding like the past gets a genuinely fresh take, and Uncle Acid were that. Mind Control came out April 15, 2013, again through Rise Above — which was distributed/licensed/whatever in the States through Metal Blade at the time — and as much as Blood Lust set the path that many have since attempted to walk, I’ll argue every time for Mind Control as the better record.
Even its ‘lesser’ tracks in the middle third, “Desert Ceremony,” “Evil Love” and “Death Valley Blues” — which arrive after the holy-shit-this-is-for-real opening salvo of “Mt. Abraxas,” “Mind Crawler” and “Poison Apple,” and before the far-out hallucinogenic decay of the longer last three cuts, “Follow the Leader,” “Valley of the Dolls” and “Devil’s Work” — it’s a landmark in terms of aesthetic and craft. It is among the most recognizable heavy rock albums of the last 20 years, with a fullness of production that nothing the band did before or has done since — that’s 2015’s The Night Creeper (review here) and 2018’s Wasteland (review here) — has attempted to match. Even in their discography, it stands out.
The work itself is incredible. “Mt. Abraxas” laying it on the table right at the start, the strutting hellchild of The Beatles and Sabbath. Here’s this riff, eat it. Then boogie cuz it’s “Mind Crawler” next. It is emblematic of the level of songwriter Starrs is that the band can so gleefully buy in on and roundly endorse even vague heinous shit and be both psychologically affecting and catchy as hell. They get in your head, these songs, which is the point. And “Poison Apple,” swinging into its own chorus like it’s alt-reality 1969 — a fair enough preface for “Devil’s Work”‘s Manson Family-based lyrics later — and holding that swagger in the solo. Shit.
“Evil Love” is all about the careening push. It’s like you’re falling through the verse and then falling again through the chorus. Dude sounds like he’s nodding off to sleep and it’s brilliant. The chug, and that lyric, “You are dear to our purpose.” The swing in the drums and the way the song seems to sneak around its own hook. Beautiful and sinister. All this shit you’d think would never work, very much working. And the sweep into “Death Valley Blues.” The way the song stops and redirects through that clumsy part and straightens itself out in the bridge. I love that clumsy part. Uncle Acid weren’t the first to approach the concept of SabBeatles — Type O Negative did it pretty well that one time — but they owned it on this record. I feel like it was either Uncle Acid or Ghost who were really bound to hit the mainstream and I’m glad this band didn’t become that one. It would have been a shame to lose an act so willing to revel in dirt to the demands of actually-commercial production.
But speaking of sleepy which I think I was at some point back there, look at “Follow the Leader” tapping classic psych hypnosis through repetition. Or gaze at it and feel your eyelids grow heavy and your breathing relax. By the fade, those strums are echoes of themselves and they just go on and then there’s an acoustic in there and feedback and it’s like it’s still there when it’s over. And I will be forever god damned if “Valley of the Dolls” isn’t one of the best heavy riffs of all time. I mean it. I don’t care if you’re putting it next to “Into the Void” or “South of Heaven” or “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” or “Gardenia,” it’s on that list.
And that bassline. And the mellotron. And you think the verse is the march but fuck that they’ve still got “Devil’s Work” up their sleeve. Layered solo respectful of the riff, but making its own place. Then it’s the even more sneering change in the lyric into “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls” — which was not a good, but admirably bad, movie — on the way to oblivion crash hits that were probably a pain in the ass to record, which, faster, is also how “Devil’s Work” starts. Also where it dwells in the brain, barely stopping as that chug does during the song at all if you follow the bass, which you should. They hold to it, dum-dum-dum-dum, until the song just kind of sees itself out in slow motion, some guitar picking up for a watery last word before the noise/drone and whatever-else-it-is-I-think-I-knew-at-one-point takes hold and it’s over.
Look, don’t get me wrong, I’m really, really glad Uncle Acid on the last record kinda-sorta pivoted away from writing songs about killing women and I very much hope they continue in that direction. I’m not fucking stupid. I know it’s horror culture worn as aesthetic, murder as sex, and that doesn’t mean it’s not misogynist. If knowing that and also still being astounded by this album puts me in a lower moral standing — and it probably does, if we’re being honest — then, as with every now and again really wanting to eat a hamburger, it’s a hyper-low-stakes moral compromise I’m apparently willing to make. But in the last decade the times have changed a bit and maybe that’s not a terrible thing. I’d call it kind of unfortunate that another part of Uncle Acid’s legacy and influence is tied to that, but those records are still monumentally good.
And golly shucks I hope they do another at some point.
Thanks for reading.
—
So, uh, I’m going to Freak Valley next week. Next week. I find myself feeling neither mentally nor physically fit enough for that kind of travel. I will limp, on multiple levels, into Netphen on Thursday, hopefully after a short nap. It seems like a good idea. I feel a little nuts. But sometimes you need to go and I’m booked for it, so anxious or sad-dad-bad-had as I am, I’m going. I also threw my back out yesterday, but that only hurts when I move, so should be fine. I’m 41 years old. I’ll confess I feel a bit silly.
But I think I need it more than I realize. A few showless months — just owing to the way my life is arranged right now; I acknowledge it won’t always be how it is — and I don’t feel right. Couple that with meds that I don’t think are doing me any good — but that I nonetheless just stopped writing to send a refill request for, because I do what I’m told — and being in kind of a wretched place in my own head. I have an announcement going up on (I think) Monday for Ruff Majik that I wrote the top part of on Wednesday and it’s so raw I’m not even sure I can use it. And you know I’m not shy about that kind of thing. But it’s been like that. I’m disappointed in myself as a parent, as a husband, as a person. I don’t really have anywhere in my life that I feel good right now, anywhere I can let my guard down a bit, and I’m hoping a couple days of traveling abroad will help reframe my perspective. Because it could use it, trainwreck of a human being as I am. Then maybe some therapy.
And then, in like another week and a half, Maryland Doom Fest. Not even going to try to see every band playing that. But am going to try to see plenty of them.
So that’s the story of it. I don’t know how much travel-type writing I want to do, and I’ve got other projects — bios, PostWax liner notes — eating at my brain, and maybe being stuck on an aircraft will allow me to focus enough to do some of that. Or maybe I’ll get lucky and fall asleep.
Things to pack: Advil, earplugs, camera, Salonpas, more Advil.
I hope you have a great and safe weekend. It’s starting to get hot out there, don’t forget to hydrate. Watch your head, have fun, do the thing. I’ll be back on Monday with more of this kind of thing. It’ll be a hoot.
Posted in Bootleg Theater on February 15th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, Blood Lust (2011)
Starting later this year, you’re going to start to see a bunch of best-albums-of-the-decade lists. Any such list of heavy records that doesn’t include Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats‘ Blood Lust is doing it wrong. Released in 2011 through Killer Candy Records as the UK band’s second full-length (also discussed here), it was soon picked up by Rise Above Records for a wider vinyl and CD pressing, and garage doom was born. I’m not sure another single album has come out between 2010 and 2019 that has had as much of an influence on underground heavy rock — maybe Graveyard‘s Hisingen Blues in 2011, but even that’s debatable. In its raw guitar fuzz, eerie melodies, early mystique and outright perfect presentation, Blood Lust was every bit the proverbial right album at the right time. Any given week, it’s a safe bet that even going on eight years later, I’m going to hear some band come along who’ve copped the riff to “I’ll Cut You Down.”
And reasonably so. With the formative Vol. 1 (reissue review here) behind them in 2010, Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats unleashed a collection of tracks on Blood Lust that were not only aesthetically innovative, but impeccable in their construction. Even as they conveyed a sense of horror and VHS-style tonal grit, they did so over a classic heavy rock strut and swing on cuts like the aforementioned opener as well as “Death’s Door,” the shuffling side B opener “I’m Here to Kill You” and “13 Candles” that seemed to tempt you to snap along. With the short, quiet introduction of droning noise and a channel-flipping television — note the analog static scratch between channels; clearly it’s an old television — Blood Lust set its malevolent atmosphere early and only grew more evil in its purposes, lyrics shifting from stalking and murder to witches, cult ritualism and Satanic fervor. It was a record that most people would find angry, upsetting, and unpalatable, and that’s exactly what it was intended to be. A dogwhistle to an audience who didn’t know it was waiting for it, dressed in purple as an amalgam of style and substance up to that point that was largely unheard.
Looking back, there are moments throughout that run into the politically problematic. “I’ll Cut You Down” is direct in its glorification of violence against women, and in that context, “Death’s Door” and “Ritual Knife” seem to follow suit. Uncle Acid have gotten a pass from a lot of accusations of misogyny because so much of what they do is storytelling and style-based, pulling from the influence of cult horror cinema and all that, but do I really need to say even pretending to kill ladies isn’t really cool? That’s something that their more recent work on last year’s Wasteland (review here) seemed to subtly pull away from, and fair enough for the change of political moment between 2011 and 2018 as issues of discrimination, violence against women and sexual violence became more a part of the international cultural conversation than they were when Blood Lust came out. Their third album, 2013’s Mind Control (review here), was more themed around cults and the inherent violence of thought as well as deed, but even 2015’s The Night Creeper (review here) seemed to return to its knife-wielding foundation even as it stripped away the grandiose production of its predecessor in favor of a rawer, nastier sound.
The overarching quality of Blood Lust, though, remains largely undeniable, and so does its impact. “I’ll Cut You Down,” “Death’s Door,” “13 Candles,” and closer “Withered Hand of Evil” are nothing short of landmarks, and even in “Curse in the Trees,” on which frontman and band mastermind Kevin R. Starrs donned the point of view of a witch being persecuted and burned alive, there was a nuance of their approach that begged the listener’s attention. At the time, roughly nothing was known about the band. There was no fanfare to the release of Blood Lust. It was simply out there one day — not that I’m any arbiter of what’s hip or anything, but for what it’s worth, I totally missed it — and its impact moved fast. It wasn’t really until Rise Above had it out on CD in 2012 as part of its then-allegiance with Metal Blade Records that the groundswell took hold, but even before that, there was significant word-of-mouth momentum behind it. And at that point, Uncle Acid hadn’t even played a show. They’ve hardly looked back since, but they didn’t start playing live until 2013.
Part of that, of course, was maintaining the mystery around the band. As mobile-based social media was allowing fans unfettered and direct access to artists — something taken for granted less than a decade later — Uncle Acid were minimal participants at best. They had a website that was a single page, then they had some shirts on it. They had a Facebook page with roughly no info. Their names weren’t known. Where they were from wasn’t really known, and most importantly, it wasn’t really known how they got that sound. The creepy, eerie vocals on “Withered Hand of Evil” or “I’m Here to Kill You” or the acoustic bonus track “Down to the Fire.” That wavering melodic sensibility on “I’ll Cut You Down.” It was all so new at the time, and Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats had managed to pull off manifesting this previously untapped niche while basically letting no one know who they were or what they were doing. Listeners didn’t even know how many people were singing on any given track, and because the sound was so fresh and so interesting, the demand for it became a whirlwind.
I don’t know if I’ll do a list of the decade’s best albums. I might put up a poll. But there’s no question that Blood Lust, even with its high body count, is destined for consideration as a classic heavy rock album, and of course Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats have gone on to become one of their generation’s most pivotal acts, crossing over to a wider appeal in audience while maintaining the identity of sound that even going back to Vol. 1 was theirs and theirs alone, and which Blood Lust saw them perfect. They’re on tour in North America this March with Graveyard, as it happens. We should probably all go. I’ll drive.
As always, I hope you enjoy.
—
It’s Friday, right? Made it? That’s good.
Okay.
Tomorrow night I’m going to go see C.O.C., Crowbar, The Obsessed and Mothership in Boston. I’m doing that. It’s happening. Monday I’ll have the review up. It’ll be good. I’m going alone because no friends but still, it’ll be good.
I’ve also got a butt-ton of writing to do this weekend, including two bios, stuff for the Roadburn ‘zine and posts for next week to get ready, so I expect to be completely out of my mind for the next two days more than usual. I started feeling overwhelmed on Wednesday for this coming weekend. Something about that just kind of feels like I’m living wrong. Whatever.
The notes are packed, so here’s what I’ve got so far:
MON 02/18 COC LIVE REVIEW; GIMME RADIO WRAP
TUE 02/19 THE MUNSENS REVIEW/SAVER PREMIERE/REVIEW
WED 02/20 BEES MADE HONEY IN THE VEIN TREE PREMIERE/REVIEW
THU 02/21 THE RIVEN VIDEO PREMIERE
FRI 02/22 CANDLEMASS REVIEW; CURSED TONGUE SIGNING ANNOUNCE
It’s almost 6:30 — I slept until 5AM, miracle of miracles — and the baby is just starting to stir, so I better go grab him out of his hexagonal not-crib and start the day proper. Before I go:
This weekend is a new episode of ‘The Obelisk Show’ on Gimme Radio. I still need to cut the voice breaks for it. I’ll try my best to make them not suck. It airs Sunday at 7PM Eastern at http://gimmeradio.com.
Posted in Reviews on October 11th, 2018 by JJ Koczan
Along with the stylistic innovation of their general aesthetic, the creepy harmonies and melodic centrality of guitar and vocals, raw fuzz of their tones, their information-age mystique earlier in their career and their classic-but-obscure sound overall, Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats‘ work has never been without a corresponding sense of nuance. As they move into album number five, Wasteland — released, as ever, by Rise Above Records — the fine sonic details of their work seem to come through the recording regardless of where an individual goes structurally. The flourish of keys in “Stranger Tonight,” the organ in the ultra-hooky “Bedouin” later in the record, the mellotron and faded-in-drums of the title-track, the VHS-style sampled intro to opener “I See Through You” that set up the arrival of further samples later in “No Return,” after the bell-chord-laden marching plod of that nine-minute track has receded into a long, fog-covered fadeout, and so on.
All of these things become part of the world created at the behest of guitarist/vocalist/ringleader Kevin R. Starrs, and brought to bear with the production of Geoff Neal at Sunset Sound in Los Angeles, there’s a balance created between Uncle Acid‘s long established wash of filthy fuzz grit and the melodies that are no less central to who they are as a band. Recording in the same studio where The Beach Boys tracked Pet Sounds and The Doors did Strange Days is something of a direct departure from 2015’s The Night Creeper (review here), which Starrs recorded himself and was the barest-sounding offering since their 2010 debut, Vol. 1 (reissue review here), and they flourish in the grander setting while holding to the eerie, sneaking-around-the-corner vibe that’s always been prevalent and has only helped their influence spread as it has over the better part of the last decade. With eight tracks and 47 minutes, Wasteland is the shortest offering Uncle Acid have made 2011’s world-breaking Blood Lust (discussed here), as both 2013’s Mind Control (review here) and The Night Creeper topped 50 minutes, and in addition to that, there seems to be some shift in how the band are using that time.
Consider for a moment the circumstances of Wasteland‘s release. On a more general level, between Brexit and anti-immigration populism in their native UK and an ever-present sense of disheartening political chaos in Europe and the US — the band’s two central markets — could easily justify the title alone, but when it comes to the actual songs and the album’s arrival, it’s being released at the Desert Daze festival in Los Angeles, and long before any details about Uncle Acid‘s fifth LP were made public, tour dates in Europe and the UK were announced for late-2018/early-2019.
We had “the Wasteland tour” before we knew what Wasteland was. For an act of Uncle Acid‘s profile — and at this point it’s safe to call them one of underground heavy’s most essential bands in terms of influence and their general audience reach — that they’d have a well coordinated release isn’t a surprise, but it’s all the more worth noting because so much of the focus throughout Wasteland seems to be on playing live. Of course it’s a two-sided LP and it splits more or less evenly into half with four tracks on each side. Fine. But to take the totality of the tracklisting as a linear whole from “I See Through You” to the militaristic-snare-into-empty-wind (blowing, no doubt, over the titular wasteland) finish of “Exodus,” the entire album seems to be geared toward playing live. It feels like a live set.
It launches with two immediate, standout, catchy hard rockers in “I See Though You” — a firm reminder to the audience of who Uncle Acid are and what they do — and “Shockwave City,” which comes across as something Scorpions might’ve conjured as filtered through Starrs‘ secrets-in-the-basement ideology of sound with scorching guitar work and a tightness of structure and central riff that stands tall among their finest singles. Momentum is built and slashed as “No Return” takes hold with a quiet and tense but slower progression and unfolds its nodding roll over an extended stretch replete with wailing vocals and a wash they’ve not yet brought to bear. It’s telling that at about six and a half minutes in, “No Return” drops to atmospheria, a kind of residual drone taking hold as the samples arrive. This ostensibly isn’t the end of side A — unless I’m way off as regards the placement of the songs on the vinyl; possible — but it does bring to a close the first of three movements happening throughout Wasteland.
Think of it this way: two rockers up front, longer song, two more rockers, longer song, and the finale duo of “Bedouin” and “Exodus” to end out. Three tracks, three tracks, two tracks.
This dynamic throughout the album, apart from considerations of physical format, makes Wasteland seem all the more built to be played live. “Blood Runner” and “Stranger Tonight,” like “Shockwave City” before them, barely top four minutes, and as the former taps some surprising NWOBHM gallop, the latter seems to be composed as the quintessential Uncle Acid track, from its threat of violence in the lyrics — it’s noteworthy that Wasteland is unmistakably the band’s album that’s least about killing ladies; perhaps a sign of Starrs having an ear to the ground as to the moment — to the sweep of its hook that only seems to grow more infectious with multiple listens. These in turn lead to “Wasteland” itself, which is unmistakably a forward step in the creative growth of the band.
They’re not strangers to using acoustics or turns to mellower fare, but across its nearly eight minutes, “Wasteland” takes what songs like “13 Candles” and “Black Motorcade” have done in the past to offset more raucous material directly bridges the gap between the two sides. For a band who’ve always, always, been about songwriting, it’s a new level of achievement in that. From the swaying early verses, effectively arranged with the aforementioned mellotron and harmonized vocals, other keys, guitar, bass flourish, etc., to the build that takes hold with the arrival of the drums at the halfway point and moves into an absolute apex for the album as a whole, it’s as gorgeous it is covered in grime, and its relatively quick fade seems to cut short what could’ve easily been a longer section. No mystery how it got to be the title-track; it’s the whole point. “Bedouin” fades in even more quickly than “Wasteland” went out, and begins the last of the three salvos, which works to bring the other two together somewhat.
It’s shorter than the opener at 5:41, but “Bedouin” nonetheless makes its impact with a strutting chorus and the organ in its verses, as well as highlight lead guitar work that recalls “Shockwave City” earlier but is more tripped-out with effects in its ending. But it’s a rager, and as it gives way to the slower-swinging “Exodus” — residing that rhythmic pocket that so many in the garage doom set try to capture but can’t quite do in the same way that comes so naturally to Uncle Acid — there’s a palpable sense of an encore happening. The closer lands squarely between the shorter and longer cuts, but moreover, it has a sense of finality to it that speaks to the band’s ever-cinematic sphere of influences. That is to say, roll credits.
But, more to the occasion, it’s the grand finale of the live set that is Wasteland as a whole, and though there’s nothing lacking by the time it’s done, the fact that the two prior salvos are three songs and the last one is only two seems to tip-hat to the notion of leaving the audience wanting more. Hence the sudden cut at the end of “Exodus” itself and the shorter overall runtime. It works. The danger coming into Wasteland was whether or not Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats would be seen to have run their stylistic course. Could they make their sound do something new? They haven’t yet made their Sgt. Pepper— or, if they were after my own heart, their Rubber Soul — and they may not have interest in doing so, but what Wasteland does is to bring a refreshed vitality to their approach while willfully tightening the songcraft at the same time they push forward into new ground. There will be a lot that’s familiar to established listeners, but as always with Starrs‘ work, the deeper you dig, the more you find, and Wasteland more than earns such excavation. It’d be a show to remember.
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 30th, 2018 by JJ Koczan
UK garage doom forerunners Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats spent much of 2016 on the road touring the crap out of their 2015 fourth album, The Night Creeper (review here), which was by far their grimeiest yet. It’s important to add the ‘yet’ there because the band are set to have a new album out this Fall through Rise Above Records, which also reissued their long-lost 2010 debut, Vol. 1 (review here), late last year.
The band were relatively quiet in 2017 apart from that reissue, so one imagines the new record has been through a wringer of a writing process, and in addition to, you know, actually hearing it, I’ll be interested to find out who recorded/is recording the thing, since so much of the band’s approach comes down to sonic aesthetics and capturing that grainy, classic and threatening sound.
One more to get excited about, and from the looks of the announced European and UK tours, they’ll once again be doing some considerable road time.
From Rise Above‘s social medias:
UK’s scuzziest ambassadors of blood-curdling fuzz, UNCLE ACID & THE DEADBEATS, prepare to hit the roads of mainland Europe and Scandinavia this November/December in support of their much anticipated fifth album, due out this autumn.
Support will come from the mistresses of reverb-soaked garage rock, L.A. WITCH, who will be returning to Europe after their own successful headline tour this March/April.
Uncle Acid and the deadbeats UK tour dates announced. Supported by Blood Ceremony!
Begin: transmission
“These will be our first European shows in two years and we’re hungry to get back out and lay waste to many of our favourite cities. You will enjoy the show experiencing the latest PsychoVision screen technologies with piles of cranked up, ear splitting valve amplification to melt your minds. The nightmare shall resume!”
The specially commissioned artwork for the tour is by legendary Italian poster artist Enzo Sciotti (Fulci, Argento, Romero).
Stay tuned for further tour dates and album release info.
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats live w/ L.A. Witch: 15.11 BE Brussels AB 16.11 NL Amsterdam Paradiso Noord 17.11 DE Hamburg Knust 19.11 SE Gothenburg Pustervik 20.11 NO Oslo Rockefeller 21.11 SE Stockholm Nalen 23.11 FI Helsinki Tavastia 25.11 DK Copenhagen Gra Hall 26.11 DE Berlin SO36 27.11 PL Warsaw Hybrydy 28.11 DE Dresden Beatpol 29.11 AT Vienna Arena 01.12 DE Munich Strom 02.12 IT Milan Legend 03.12 FR Villeurbanne Transbordeur 04.12 CH Zurich Dynamo 06.12 DE Karlsruhe Substage 07.12 DE Osnabruck Rosenhof 08.12 DE Koln Luxor 09.12 FR Paris La Maroquinerie
Uncle Acid live w/ Blood Ceremony: 16.01 Leeds Brudenell 17.01 Newcastle O2 Academy 2 18.01 Glasgow G2 19.01 Belfast Limelight 2 20.01 Dublin Academy Green Room 22.01 Manchester Gorilla 23.01 Birmingham O2 Institute 2 24.01 Cardiff The Globe 25.01 London Koko
Posted in Reviews on November 27th, 2017 by JJ Koczan
I don’t remember exactly when I made the decision, but at some point, amid an unceasing insistence of YouTube recommendations, I told myself that I wasn’t going to listen to Vol. 1 by Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats until I could do so on a physical format. The likelihood of this happening? Just about nil. My understanding is that maximum 100 copies of the original Killer Candy Records self-released CDR version were pressed, and I’ve seen numbers quoted as low as 20, so barring some lightning-strike/winning-lottery-ticket-type oddsbeating or an unspeakable act of generosity, it didn’t seem like the kind of thing that would ever be found, and likewise, the London-based band didn’t seem all that interested in putting it back into the public sphere — where, to the rest of the universe who probably just streamed it, it was anyway.
Listening now to the Rise Above Records reissue of Vol. 1, pressed to CD and LP in giving-proper-due form, this was unquestionably the incorrect choice on my part. Like most paths we take that lead us to willful ignorance, just the wrong way to go. I denied myself a crucial context in which to place Uncle Acid‘s subsequent three records — 2011’s landmark Blood Lust (discussed here), 2013’s Mind Control (review here) and 2015’s The Night Creeper (review here) — but more than that, I missed out on the seething rawness of “Dead Eyes of London,” the hook of opener “Crystal Spiders,” the psycho-surf of “Vampire Circus” (not to be confused with the Earthride album of the same name) and the organ-laced madhouse shuffle of “I Don’t Know.” Granted I didn’t know what I was missing, but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t missing it.
More the fool I, then, because particularly for those who became Uncle Acid fans around the time of Blood Lust — which Rise Above picked up for release in 2012 following the explosive reception that sent the band almost immediately to the fore of the heavy underground before they even really began playing shows in 2013 — Vol. 1 should be considered essential. One can hear the roots of “I’ll Cut You Down” and “Death’s Door” in “Crystal Spiders” and the later ultra-fuzzed-out swinging highlight “Do What Your Love Tells You,” and more than that, these pieces and others like the eight-minute “Lonely and Strange” stand up on their own as examples of the rare level of craft that has typified Uncle Acidand the Deadbeats‘ work throughout their tenure: memorable songs executed with a deep-running sense of vibe that, as Vol. 1 affirms, has been theirs all along.
Parts of the album are somewhat rudimentary compared to the more careful arrangements that would follow by the time the band — led by Kevin R. Starrs, who’s more “shadowy presence” than “frontman” here — got around to Mind Control, but that’s the idea. They’re supposed to be. The nodding “Witches Garden” buzzes its guitar alongside a running line of organ in a manner that makes character of its rough edges, and seems all the murkier for that in a way that feeds into the mood of the record overall. Of course, this is hearing it with the hindsight of the ensuing seven years and all that Uncle Acid has gone on to accomplish — not to mention a remix and master by Starrs — but while Vol. 1 isn’t shy about its flaws or moments of indulgence, it not only serves as an important documentation of the beginnings of the band’s development, but brims with the creative force that still drives them. Again, it’s as much worth hearing Vol. 1 for what it has to offer on its own as what it brings to the wider Uncle Acid discography.
For example, the aforementioned “Lonely and Strange” offers deceptive nuance at the end of side A in its blend of acoustic and electric guitar, hypnotic repetition in its rhythm, a charmingly clumsy transition at the 4:30 mark, and a long stretch of classically heavy rocking instrumental wistfulness that’s unlike anything the band would again conjure. A plotted-seeming solo is met with fervent crash cymbal before dropping to organ and noise freakout to resume with even more aplomb, and it rounds out its last minute with a dive into Sabbathian acoustics and bass.
To complement this, the band brings “Wind up Toys” to close out side B and end the record with a sense of motion that echoes the ’60s surf horrors of “Vampire Circus” but has even more of a rockabilly-style motoring to its core riff early before shifting into an acoustic bridge around two minutes in and from there departing on an extended guitar lead that carries through the remaining five-ish minutes of the track. That’s something Uncle Acid would just about never do at this point. Their approach has tightened to a degree that, unless they were brazenly breaking their own rules, it seems unlikely they’d indulge such a departure from structure once they’ve established it so clearly.
Nonetheless, it’s the kind of thing a band does early in their run when they’re figuring out who they want to be as players and as a group, and to have that moment preserved on Vol. 1 only makes this reissue more justified. Add to that the consideration that The Night Creeperseemed to be endeavoring toward a harsher bite than that of Mind Control before it, and one could further argue that Uncle Acid were at least on some level looking to come full circle in bringing the lessons they’ve learned since together with the bare-flesh authenticity of this material.
There are arguments to be made on either side of that, I suppose, but what’s more important is those arguments can be had now that Vol. 1 has seen an actual release, and that those who never had the chance to take it on before — or who did have the chance but were just too much of a dope to do so — can finally do so. In their aesthetic contribution and in their sheer level of songwriting, Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats are among the most important heavy bands of their generation, and Vol. 1 provides an essential look at their origins and a killer listen besides. It is not by any means to be avoided, in whatever form.
