Shock Radar - Live Like Lions
I dig the 10" format. I know a lot of folks find little use for it, but I'm just strange that way. Of course, the format doesn't really matter so much as what's on it, and on this tasty 10" licorice pizza, Shock Radar, the Heavy brainchild of Lee Diamond, what's on it is a darkened slab of groovy psychedelic heaviness. "Live Like Lions" is the side A here, brandishing a groove and riff so muddied you'd think the atmosphere had suddenly turned to earth and soil. Mid-tempo, but still rocking, Lee rises the song above the trouncing bleakness with a vocal performance brimming with emotion and Trent Reznor angst. Think stoner-sludge-doom-grunge, all dumped in equal parts into the witch's cauldron of rock and you'll get the feeling.
Flipside, "Generator" mines a similar earthen grave of sludgy goodness, that snaps the oppressive heaviness with a surprisingly light and melodic central passage. Dig that bass-mad groove as the heavy trounces back. Dance in your own twisted, half-deadened two-step for the groove is unrelenting.
Special limited edition vinyl in prelude to a forth-coming full length. I can't wait to add that one to my collection.
Blue Pills - Bliss
Don't know what's in the air that twin slabs of 10" vinyl were hauled in by Postman Sal, but I'm not complaining. After the weight of Shock Radar, Blue Pills was the perfect about-face. Still heavy, Blue Pills explore a bluesier vein of psychedelic stoner gold. Blessed with the vocal talents of Elin Larsson, --easily one of my favorite female singers in this dominantly male genre-- Blue Pills are a retro-late 60's-early 70's blast of heavy psych that features former members of Dead Man and Radio Moscow. And what they do, they do masterfully.
Like the best aggressive hippy band of those long lost days, Blue Pills ply their trade with an ample supply of searing guitars courtesey of Dorian Sorriaux and Cory Berry and a lock-step psych groove that just soars. "Bliss" is just that; a full on blissful assault of stoned out jamming heaviness, all locked into a non-stop groove. "Astralplane" ups the fuzz and feedback as Elin breaks out a killer soulful vocal, like the long-lost sister of Janis Joplin. Around her the band goes absolute apeshit in psych guitars, Zack Anderson's plowing bass and Jonas Askerlund's multi-armed drumming. A killer cut that shoulda floored the faithful at Woodstock.
Flipside, "Devil Man" brings on the stonerfied blues, while "Little Sun" is a mellower acrid smoke freak out.
Coming from the brilliant label, Crusher Records, Blue Pills is a handsome addition to any record collection.