Total skronk nowave psych mdaness.
The best release yet from quasi St.louis locals.
$10 postage paid in the U.S.
If in a foreign land it will cast you $12
Apples & Heroin Review
SkareKrau Radio "The One-Eyed Swine is
Queen" CD (Apop): 'Round here, we don't take kindly to scam
artists. If a band influences your art, you must build off their sound in order
to show proper appreciation. Simply copping their style and snagging their
guitar lines shows a lack of creativity. Uncreative minds should steer clear of
music making. Around here, we love SkareKrau radio 'cause they remind us of old
no-wave bands but stop at remindin'. Their new disc, "The One-Eyed Swine is
Queen," topples proto-no-wave bands like AIDS Wolf at their own game, molding a
new batch of schizophrenic art-punk with - instrumentation and genuine attitude.
Sure, under a microscope, one spots tidbits of End Result's disjointed,
screeching train-clack core, DNA's angular skronk and Mars' no-fi violence but a
nucleus of originality dominates the cell. Two ten-minute-plus tunes display the
band's bursting creative nature. The monster five-part opener, "The One-Eyed Rod
is Love," speeds through nearly eleven minutes, incorporating spirituals, guitar
noise meltdowns, field recordings and subtle guitar-feedback foreplay into the
madness. An unnamed female singer brings to mind an early, throat-blood drawing
Kathleen Hanna before mellowing to a jagged Japanese noise-pop melody. The band
rips into a vicious call-and-response with an angry male member shouting while
brutal Blue Humans-style shredding ensues. The tune ends with the female singing
to a brilliant mixture of the three melodies, effectively previewing the modus
operandi through the album's songs.
Short psychedelic noise snippets
appear throughout the record, exhibiting wild, masterful untamed brush strokes.
"Kang is Loved in Sprinkles' Space Time Conundrums" flows like ambient lava,
occasionally displaying a molten guitar shard. "Who's Playing Drums? Huh?" takes
a funky free-jazz trumpet, interrupts it with band banter then cuts to the band
interpreting "LA Blues." "Experimental Clone" ends the disc with an amazing duet
between unwieldy guitars and a gentle music box, garnering hypnotic results. The
37-second back porch Beefheart tone-poem "Hair Claw Hair Hole" captures a
humorous side of the band while shining bright with rabid
inventiveness.
Even the seven-minute singular, droning guitar line on "I
Can See the Wind Blowing Inside of Me" manages to hold the listener's attention
prior to feedback accentuation and the resulting disorienting song. Though each
entry in their discography proves worthwhile, no album exhibits the band's
strength and range like The One-Eyed Swine is
Queen.
