Night Control - Death Control

For the majority of musicians working from a standpoint similar to that of Christopher Curtis Smith, recording with limited resources functions as a reaction to the bells and whistles of big studio recordings and all they've come to represent. But, the charm of "Death Control," Smith's first release under the Night Control moniker, is that through all of its ramshackled, makeshift glory it strives to evoke the grandiose strokes and layered textures of a sixties studio pop record.

It’s an album that feels highly realized, calculated even. Each stomp of a distortion pedal is exactly where it needs to be. Each moment of reverb-soaked, blissful indistinctness is counteracted by a resolute piano interlude or a melody that would stop British invasion obsessives in their tracks. Nevertheless, “Death Control” remains on the periphery of pop music. It’s too laden with tape hiss and Jesus and Mary Chain caterwaul to please listeners unengaged by the music of the margins. This is part of its beauty.

The bells and whistles that make "Death Control" feel so complete are likely attributable to some well executed pedal tricks, tape loops, and Smith and his musician friends bringing their A-games. What ultimately brings me back to it again and again are the songs. Each is an ambitious hashing out of ideas that transcend recording quality. It’s just a hunch, but I imagine the songs that make up “Death Control” would sound great even if a Talkboy was used to record them.

Pillow Talk - Downtown Unga Wunga 7"

Columbus, Ohio's Pillow Talk might be categorically lumped in with the minimal basement synth bands that seem to be making waves with the Ebay collector crowd. Like Blank Dogs et al, Pillow Talk's sound is alienated, driven by simple, previously bygone casio beats and stabs of jagged, fractured synth. It's unlikely that Pillow Talk will play a show and their online presence, now an integral element to the shaping of most bands' identities, is somewhat provocatively non-existent. While plenty of record collector bands get by on PR moves like these and little more, nothing outside of Pillow Talk's music can actually prepare listeners for what's going on, on "Downtown Unga Wunga."

Pillow Talk's debut 7" is truly confounding at a time when more bands are attempting to sound confounding than ever. "Downtown Unga Wunga" is baffling. It's a belligerent, amphetamine morass soked in the cold sweat fallout of too much speed and booze. It's a record on the verge of vomiting if there ever was one. With a penchant for the hardcore bands like Psycho Sin, who occupy a corner of the sub genre that is too warped to appeal to hardcore purists and too idiotic for the art set, Pillow Talk finds a way to breath life into a musical resurgence that hasn't been as captivating for me as it has been for plenty of others.

After Several Months, A New Post!

Since my last post, I've had little interest in blogging and music in general. Maybe it was the lack of daylight or the excessive amount of work-related writing I was inundated with, but something clicked and I quit caring. In that time, I did, however, find plenty of time to dump a superfluous amount of booze into my system, listen to an annoying amount of Guided by Voices, and spend more money than I'm worth. The club is open, indeed. Since dragging myself from my barstool, I've run across some inspiring new releases I'd like to spout off about. I hope to start posting on a regular basis, but I'm going to set the bar low and hope to exceed expectations--an approach that has always worked in my favor.