GFrenzy - Eel Creek

Stefan Neville's Stabbies etc imprint cast their attention back to the turn of the century with this first time vinyl pressing of Glen Frenzy's Eel Creek, a gnarled ten-song serving of sample-heavy, lo-fi blues experimentalism built almost exclusively from the music of his peers in Hamilton and Norway. If you know anything about the NZ lathe cut underground underground, you'll recognise a fair portion of the 'contributors' here - Birchville Cat Motel, Dipsomaniacs, Crude, Teen -X-Ray, Pumice, Armpit ++ - though you might feel as familiar with the resultant sounds. This may have first arrived in 2002, but it's to Beck's early forays in Dadaist collage rock and Lou Barlow's first 4-track recordings that this bears most resemblance, blown-out, a little absurd, and more often than not, hanging on by a thread. The sampling is primitive, and the sound-source files not exactly high fidelity, which makes for particularly messy and scorched results, though it's Glen's vocal performances that carry the entire thing, rough 'n' ready but entirely committed to facing down the horror of the everyday world. It's certainly a time capsule, but then again, the blues is a timeless beast, however it manifests itself.