Bass. It's all about bass, innit? How low can you go? As low as a good throbbing permits. Volume Two of Trance Syndicate's
The Kahanek Incident series finds Austin's former
Furry Thing(
s) Ken Gibson bass `n' drumming the
Electric Company's "Furmented Omens," with the remix sounding like samples hurtling through a windstorm. Or, as it's succinctly stated on the label: "fucked up by Ken Gibson." The flip side features the Electric Company working over the fuzzpuppies' "Porno Queen's Love Polemic," which is merely "refashioned by Brad Laner," and thankfully so; tribally enhanced we can handle.
Glorium are always a welcomed handful and no more so than on their new Golden Hour 7-inch, whose A-side, "Black Market Hearts," sounds like one of John Carpenter's electro New Wave scores in which the vocal lurks about menacingly, leaping out occasionally, knife in hand. The B-side, "Walkie-Talkie," takes a throbbing narcoleptic bassline, injects a lead line of adrenaline, and stands back while the singer gets Cure-d.
Paul Newman's recorded debut, "... Please Wait During the Silence" b/w "Clear Baby" (Twistworthy) is sometimes
only a bassline as the band's bashing prog-punk thrashes about rather aimlessly to reveal a centering bass part every now and again. Speaking of prog-punk, Cavity vets
Blort dedicate their yellow-vinyl single (on Morning Star) to their late bassist Thomas Churchill, who was killed last year while riding his bicycle on Lamar. "Aunt Ida Like Chickens" features Johanna Taylor phone-sexing it to good effect ("take your clothes off and we'll start fucking like bunnies"), while the B-side, "Dance of the Mutants" would make a good double feature to Glorium's "Walkie-Talkie," as it's straight outta some George Romero zombie gorefest. Finally, there's Austin's
1-4-5's, who are all galloping bassline and garageland Clash guitars on their "Ten Gallon Helmet" four-song EP (Answer Pictures). Primitive rave-up music would be another apt description, and who cares about spastic vocals anyway when you've got a speedy "Little Red Hot Rod"? Bass and drums, indeed -- the real kind, not that electronica b.s.
--
Raoul Hernandez
"7 & 7 Is" reviews all local and national singles. Send to: "7 & 7 Is," The Austin Chronicle, PO Box 49066, Austin, TX 78765. Trance Syndicate: PO Box 49771, Austin, TX 78765; Golden Hour: 2105 Comal, Austin, TX 78702; Twistworthy: PO Box 4491, Austin, TX 78765; Blort: PO Box 14334, Ste. 166, Austin, TX 78761; Answer Pictures: Hase Bld No. 2, B1, 5-49, OSU 3 Naka-Ku Nagoya-City, Aichi 460 Japan.