First off: Fuck Tom Wheeler and the F.C.C.
Second: sorry for the wait.
Third: way to go Justin Wright and his Sonic Meditations label for bringing us ‘Schwach gekerbt’ from the German trio Laube. The band plays a powerful slowcore in the vein of The For Carnation and Codeine – something rarely endeavored for no good reason since the time of The For Carnation or Codeine. Light on the electronics/heavy on the bass, Rhodes, and floor kit, these five instrumentals are laminated under a thick clear coat of steel-door thud, paid in homage to the final years of American automobile supremacy under an overcast, rust-belt sky. But this isn’t driving music, or even music for a car culture. Every note sags downward with weight. Rather, it is fetish music for design, the fetish of Prometheus told in gold flecked hoods and piped bench seats. And like the catalogs from which they are ultimately inspired, these monoliths do not move, but pull with gravitational primacy. Bass plumbs resonate for hours like a pig’s orgasm, swept from below with bristled sticks. “Dove Gray,” “Classic Cream,” “Formal Black” – the wavery current of the organ offers the only visible waves across these fine finishes. Averaging about 10 minutes a track, these are glassy waters. The briefest (at six minutes), “Pewter Gray Metallic” is the only to not feature drums, though you would only know it by the well-placed coughing fit in the final moment. Even the flaws are under control. Mastered to perfection by Plotkin, in an edition of 80 copies. Very recommended.
Sonic Meditations cassette
$5
HERE