Archives for posts with tag: The Fall

Mastering The Shifters “Creggan Shops”

January 10, 2018 //

Shifters

Mastering The Shifters “Creggan Shops” on It Takes Two Records.

One of my favourite records to have worked on in 2016!

“There’s more than a few moments on the debut single from Melbourne, Australia’s the Shifters that suggest, at least as far as I can tell, that they might be more than a little familiar with the work of Mark E. Smith and company. The deadpan male/female vocal pairing and minimalist rhythmic repetition, repetition, repetition worked into “Creggan Shops” and “Captain Hindsight” sound like they’ve been lovingly traced from the blueprints of the Fall’s’ early, scrappy glory days (Live at the Witch Trials through Hex Enduction Hour, if you’re keeping score), with all of that band’s tightly-wound paranoia, if slightly less of a sense of imminent and inevitable volatile self-destruction. But the Shifters are equally capable of twisting their sound into a fractured, low-fidelity pop sprawl that takes some further cues from the scrappy, rough and tumble sounds of the early-to-mid ‘80s Flying Nun Records catalog, with that particular synthesis of inspirations serving as an implicit reminder that the Fall had, in their heyday, conquered the Top 20 charts in New Zealand. After this record, the Shifters really deserve no less for themselves. 
-Erika Elizabeth (Maximum Rock’n’Roll, Futures and Pasts radio)”

Buy it here!

 

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Mastering the Gotobeds “Poor People Are Revolting”

November 12, 2014 //
0

Gotobeds

Mastering the Gotobeds “Poor People Are Revolting” on Erste Theke Tonträger.

“The Gotobeds’ members come from Pittsburgh, Penn., a place notorious for keeping great local bands to itself. But the racket these guys kick up on their first album, Poor People Are Revolting, might be too strong for the city to contain.

Guitarists Eli Kasan and Tom Payne spent the last few years as part of the local hardcore band Kim Phuc. Joined by bassist Gavin Jensen and drummer Cary Belbeck, they bring that energy to The Gotobeds, a rowdy, ramshackle party house of a band, built on the intersecting bedrock of post-punk and indie rock. On Poor People Are Revolting, there’s something crazy going on in every room, the front porch and the backyard: a party that never dies down or seems to stop, even as the neighbors complain and the cops drive past. Working from the spirit and fundamentals of a small handful of influences — the design sense and intellectual rowdiness of The Fall; the constant evolution and masterful poker faces of Wire, from whose drummer these guys borrowed their name; the sturdy, heroic melodic sense and layered tape-loop production of Mission of Burma — The Gotobeds’ members paint a dirty, driven, vulgar portrait of Rust Belt restlessness.

Poor People rockets out of the gate with “Fast Trash,” a great intro to The Gotobeds’ boundless energy. Two-parter “Wasted on Youth/Melted Candle” starts out with a tuneful riff that ratchets past pandemonium. Every song here is an honest-to-goodness anthem, ready to sweep you up in the throttling, last-call anxiety that permeates the band’s work — even through all 10 minutes of the single repetitive riff that makes up “Secs Tape.”

Were these guys from New York City, they’d probably be too tired and broke to play with this level of fevered, feral inspiration. With no fear of being priced out, they launch one of the greatest arguments against Big Apple living with their single “NY’s Alright.” Like the album’s title, the song is a double-edged sword, couching the relative excitement of New York (and hearing all about it from everyone who’s moved there) against the reality of people staring into their cellphones on crowded sidewalks, constantly trying to maintain a standard of living that The Gotobeds can enjoy for next to nothing. The sentiment is hammered home in the video for the track, as the band drops a Parquet Courts LP out of its sleeve, only to see it shatter on the floor.

One of the strongest American rock debuts in years, Poor People Are Revolting is an obscene gesture hoisted toward anyone who’d claim that the genre is dead.”

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Mastering the Gotobeds "Poor People Are Revolting"

November 12, 2014 //
0

Gotobeds

Mastering the Gotobeds “Poor People Are Revolting” on Erste Theke Tonträger.

“The Gotobeds’ members come from Pittsburgh, Penn., a place notorious for keeping great local bands to itself. But the racket these guys kick up on their first album, Poor People Are Revolting, might be too strong for the city to contain.

Guitarists Eli Kasan and Tom Payne spent the last few years as part of the local hardcore band Kim Phuc. Joined by bassist Gavin Jensen and drummer Cary Belbeck, they bring that energy to The Gotobeds, a rowdy, ramshackle party house of a band, built on the intersecting bedrock of post-punk and indie rock. On Poor People Are Revolting, there’s something crazy going on in every room, the front porch and the backyard: a party that never dies down or seems to stop, even as the neighbors complain and the cops drive past. Working from the spirit and fundamentals of a small handful of influences — the design sense and intellectual rowdiness of The Fall; the constant evolution and masterful poker faces of Wire, from whose drummer these guys borrowed their name; the sturdy, heroic melodic sense and layered tape-loop production of Mission of Burma — The Gotobeds’ members paint a dirty, driven, vulgar portrait of Rust Belt restlessness.

Poor People rockets out of the gate with “Fast Trash,” a great intro to The Gotobeds’ boundless energy. Two-parter “Wasted on Youth/Melted Candle” starts out with a tuneful riff that ratchets past pandemonium. Every song here is an honest-to-goodness anthem, ready to sweep you up in the throttling, last-call anxiety that permeates the band’s work — even through all 10 minutes of the single repetitive riff that makes up “Secs Tape.”

Were these guys from New York City, they’d probably be too tired and broke to play with this level of fevered, feral inspiration. With no fear of being priced out, they launch one of the greatest arguments against Big Apple living with their single “NY’s Alright.” Like the album’s title, the song is a double-edged sword, couching the relative excitement of New York (and hearing all about it from everyone who’s moved there) against the reality of people staring into their cellphones on crowded sidewalks, constantly trying to maintain a standard of living that The Gotobeds can enjoy for next to nothing. The sentiment is hammered home in the video for the track, as the band drops a Parquet Courts LP out of its sleeve, only to see it shatter on the floor.

One of the strongest American rock debuts in years, Poor People Are Revolting is an obscene gesture hoisted toward anyone who’d claim that the genre is dead.”

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Mastering Blood Robots S/T LP

August 3, 2014 //
0

Blood Robots L

Mastering Blood Robots S/T LP on Thought Crime Records.

“Members of that band seem to have been in pretty much every Punk or hardcore band from the U.K. in the last 25 years or so: Health Hazard, Ebola, One By One, Boxed In…you name them. Blood Robots started in 1982 and recorded 2 demos, a split flexi 7“ with Reality Control and a few compilation tracks. Here´s most of their recorded work combined on a record that has more than 40 minutes of superb and pretty unique Punk, that has been influenced by Swell Maps, The Fall and of course Crass.”

 

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