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LP
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ITR 325LP
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LP version. "With their second album Pre Strike Sweep, GØGGS add a new level of primordial anxiety to their already-catastrophic symphony. Recorded and mixed in 2017 by GØGGS guitarist and co-founder Ty Segall, the album explores the damaging affects of modern life before blowing them up one by one. Singer Chris Shaw uses terms like 'space rinse' and 'roadside surgery' to inform the listener that this is a strange and different trip, far and away from the 'Glendale Junkyard' he romanticized in 2016 on their self-titled album. In fact, all expectations brought on by that acclaimed debut are crushed into dust, revealing a new standard by which the GØGGS march thumps."
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LP
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FTR 325LP
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"Third record, following a pair of amazing 12" near-LPs, by this Columbus howitzer. On their debut, Flash Fuck (A Wicked Company, 2013), they were a trio, but they subsequently dropped a guitarist. By the time they cut Vernacular Splatter (Superdreamer, 2015), they has found their true shape as a duo. With Aurelie on drums and vox, and Chris Corbin on guitar, they had pared their shit down to a tight-packed near-perfect two-person howl. For Possession Sessions they have retained that format, although legendary producer Mike Rep can't keep from making his guitar a deep deep part of the mix. And by hooking their braying sonic mule to Rep's stark, chopped production aesthetics, Sex Tide've created a sound that is naught but balling. All the shards that were present in their work earlier -- Gibson Bros., Cramps, Dead Moon, Pussy Galore, Churchmice, etc. -- have been compacted into a rough spew of concrete garbage rock that will have your ass spinning in its own special grave. Only quibble is that I'm not sure how much I've managed to wallow in the specifics of each song yet, since the whole thing flows wobbling and seamless, like a lost record by a band you wished had existed. Grubbiness of this particular style always initially seems like it should be roll-off-a-log easy. The chords are so basic, the thumping so primitive, the voices so devoted to unknown tongues, you'd imagine any monkey could do something similar. But man, it ain't easy. You can listen to a couple hundred records in this vein and maybe they'll all sound pretty good ('cause the style is so perfectly suited to R&R barbarians), but it's rare to hear anyone do it as well as this. Sex Tide's first couple of records are dazzlers, but this one goes way beyond that. And I'm betting it will stand up as an unparalleled booze party soundtrack for many years to come. So buy two. You're definitely gonna fuck up your first copy." --Byron Coley, 2017 Edition of 300.
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LP+CD
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TR 325LP
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LP version. Includes CD. Kristoffer Bolander, the Swede with the heavenly voice, has been touring from Gothenburg to Italy for since the mid-2000s as the head of the alternative folk band Holmes. Bolander now presents his first solo album, I Forgive Nothing. The opening bars of the album immediately immerse the listener in Bolander's sound -- his gentle and wisely thoughtful songwriting carried by a voice that evokes comparison to Neil Young. The whole thing is supported by a pulsating bed of sound that sporadically swells and retreats to just an organ and Bolander's delicate voice over the course of the album. The deliberate setting of these counterpoints creates the album's most stirring moments. The reduction of the sound is the key factor on I Forgive Nothing and is what differentiates this album from Bolander's previous work. It was a deliberate decision not to produce all songs with a full band lineup, to create new space within the compositions and bring the fundamental elements of the songs -- the poetic lyrics and vocals -- to the fore. With that in mind, Bolander worked for two years to write the songs on I Forgive Nothing. He also decided to work in a different studio for this production; in cooperation with producer Anders Lagerfors, he recorded the entire album mostly live in just six days at Nacksving Studios in Gothenburg. This approach preserved the intimacy of the pieces and can especially be appreciated during the album's quieter moments, when Bolander's voice is accompanied only by an acoustic guitar ("The Rings Above") or an organ ("Something Wrong"). For the songs that were arranged with full-band accompaniment, such as the epic "I Forgive Nothing," Bolander called upon old companions and friends, all of whom hail from his hometown of Vänersborg. As a result, not only does the greatest lap steel guitarist on that side of the Atlantic appear on the album -- Johan Björklund of Holmes -- but so does his brother, drummer Michael Björklund, best known from the Swedish punk band Affordable Hybrid. "I forgive nothing" is a paraphrase from Samuel Beckett's 1951 novel Malone Dies, a book that serves as a major inspiration for Kristoffer Bolander. Beckett's lyrical tone runs through the 12 tracks on the album like a red thread. In combination with the musical setting it brings an extraordinary depth and overwhelming atmosphere that is truly unparalleled.
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