Years & Years - King b/w King-TCTS remixI'm pretty sure this was handed to me as a free 7" one day as I finished a vinyl purchase at Rasputins in San Lorenzo. I'm in the habit of always asking if they have any promo 7" to hand out and every once in a while they pull out a juicy stack from behind the counter. Of course, you never know what you're getting but that's part of the fun, isn't it? In this case, it's a nifty little dancefloor gem. At first, I was wondering -- nay -- convinced that I was listening to a Michael Jackson sample spun over a percolating, EDM beat with a spunky bass-fueled, get-your-ass-in-motion groove. In fact, I still am convinced of that. I can't imagine anyone else sounding so much like Michael but . . .well, ... Michael. But I don't see his name anywhere, only vocals credited to Olly Allexander. Either way, what we got here is the sound of Michael Jackson if he was in his mid-20's but living in today's world of rave's, EDM pool parties, and iMac mash-ups. And that's all good. Simply a fun song. Flipside is a remix, which brings another view to the scene and is also worth hearing.
Raw Meat - Stand-by Girl b/w Out in the CountryRiding Easy Records has tapped into a lost vault of dusty late 60's and early 70's protometal gems and is releasing them on compilations and singles and nothing in the world could make this protometal fanboy happier. First of all, Riding Easy does a stand up job on their releases and secondly, Riding Easy's Partner, Lance Barresi, co-owner of L.A.-cum-Chicago retailer Permanent Records, has done an amazing job curating the best of this lost fuzz and finally, it brings more lost heavy rock to my starving ears. The first compilation Brown Acid is out already and will be the subject of a future review, but today we're delving into a little Raw Meat. And man, it couldn't be any juicier. I have a hard time believing that this is the original master because the sound is so immediate, so punchy, so full of life. Having dealt with the Poobah original masters and the work we did to get Tony Reed to remaster the Let Me In album, I'm totally impressed with the sound here. So what is it? Two slabs of way fuzzed out, psych crazy heavy riffing monsters. Simply the early 70's protometal vibe that I lose my mind over. Acutally, the sleeve says these songs were recorded in 1969 in Milwaukee, but you get my drift. Heavy psychedelic-cum-early metal brilliance. Well done.
