See also: Zyklon B Zombies - Skull & Son of Dribble - Son of Drib Against the Wind
OK take a breath, Minimum Table Stacks come back swinging with - count them - three new records in a single drop, two archival and one straight from the here and now. If there's a unifying quality to the MTS output it's a broad concern with outsider DIY activity, albeit mostly the kind that favours off-kilter melody and oddpop aesthetics. Off these latest three offerings, Violin Sect, an extrememly shortlived Welsh outfit from 1981, perhaps best hold true to those principles with four songs (two previously unreleased) of primitive post-punk poptimism that stresses an affinity with the Desperate Bicyles, fellow countrymen Young Marble Giants and the less abrasive manifestations of the It's War Boys crew. It's a well mined area, of course, yet Violin Sect have until now still somehow managed to avoid the attentions of even the most diligent of crate digger archaelogists. Not sure why - four prime cuts here, especially the proto-indie absurdity of MILK, that stand toe-to-toe with any of their better known peers and are well deserving of their flowers. On the other side of the fence is this first time vinyl press of Skull, the 1993 cassette by Japanese duo, Zyklon B Zombies. Someone has classified this as 'noise' on Discogs, which it obviously quite literally is, but aesthetically speaking really is not (or at least not just that). Post-industrial, outer rock jammers that chug and sprawl with a dense fervour, hinting at Xpressway dissonance and that great Japanese tradition of artful extremes. Vocals clamour to be heard through the six string scree, drums are of the especially linear variety, remarkably displaying a melodic heart amidst its metallic beat. Think CIA Debutante, perhaps, with a little extra guitar overdrive. You might not yet know it, and on first listen you're gonna wonder why. A killer uncovering. And so now that brings us up to the present, with the second album from Columbus' Son of Dribble. The press release compares them to the Strokes, which is risky business but i can see the angle. Probably a bit more early Parquet Courts in here for me, and those Great Blog Rock years of 2007-9, which all taken together gives you an idea of the smart/not smart lo-fi testifying on show here. Garagerock will never die, but you will etc etc.
