DEGREASER - "BOTTOMFEEDER" LP

Gnarly Aussie rooting from the remains of Sea Scouts, Bird Blobs and other shrapnel resting in the mind of Tim Evans. If you were following Sea Scouts back in their day, well I applaud you, because I myself have been playing catch-up with their work over the past year or two, and only then because of a tip from the Aussie sleuth who released this here record. So yeah, this thing goes deep in the burrow, perhaps if you didn't think Slug Guts went deep enough in the hole, well then you need dig no further than to follow this black rabbit. Dark layers of rhythm repeat and sway in a passively agressive lurch and flop, performing a No Wave application of the time-honored Aussie trogloditian swamp-swing. There's little variance from song to song, both rhythmically and aesthetically, vox are continuously delivered in a Yow-like drunk-murmuring-into-a-whiskey-bottle slur. There might only be one song here, who knows, there aren't even any song titles to be seen anywhere. The album leaves you feeling out of sorts. Sometimes this enhances the damage and adds a twisted psych quality to get lost in, and sometimes it makes it too much too take. Too much ugly repetition. When Degreaser leave you floating in some borderless dreamscape full of dust devils and shadow demons, they excel. The best couple of cuts off of this are as primal a scree you're going to scrape off the bottom of your shoe this year. A side long serving is plenty of time to get where they're going. Taking the whole thing at once might want to make you lay off the drugs for awhile. Which is a good thing, no? Scum stats: I'm sure there's only an unholy few of these, so get one now before you're paying a devil's ransom in 2012.(RK)

I was late to arrive on the alternating Sea Scouts and Bird Blobs trams, but was well aware that many peers and elders held those groups in high esteem. While the DeGreaser record may contain whiffs of the fog the Scouts/Blobs left in their wake, this is a beast in and of itself; enlivened by splashes of chrome strippin' black-hole psych and dense No Wave. You might hear bits & pieces from principal songwriter Tim Evan's other bands over the years, among them Bogan Dust and more recently, Coconuts. Facts bein' facts though, you could just as well do w/out hearing any of what's come before from Tim & co and still get a kick out of DeGreaser and their debut long-player 'Bottom Feeder'. Here are nine tracks that will make you hit the wall or nosedive onto gravel. A pitch-perfect addition to our ever growing roster of gnarled eerie sounds; DeGreaser are a destruction unit of the highest caliber, worth yer chump change no matter what time you happened to tune in. Mastered by Steven Smith. - Brendon Annesley/Negative Guest List