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Saturday 29 October 2016

DEAD RABBITS - EVERYTHING IS A LIE (Fuzz Club LP, Deluxe LP, CD, D/L). THE WANDS - FACES EP (Fuzz Club 10” Vinyl, CD, D/L).

Dead Rabbits are surely a band from the early 90s that have fallen through a fissure in the Time Space Continuum that opened up in the Southampton area sometime between the release of Nowhere and Loveless and have rocked up at Fuzz Club. One of the earliest signings to the label they have been previously described as having a sound that takes “the Brian Jonestown Massacre-inspired psychedelic rock sonic aesthetic and crashes it head on with Lou Reed’s simplistic guitar work and Jason Pierce’s absurd yet painfully human poetry”. Having more of an 80s Indie Rock/Neo-Psych sensibility than many of bands on Fuzz Club, Dead Rabbits are melodic yet dynamic band. Mixing powerful, unfussy drumming and  fluid bass-lines with dense distortion and soaring, crystalline guitars their new LP, Everything Is A Lie, epitomises everything that was great in a world before Brit Pop. One part the noise and chaos of Sonic Youth, one part the sticky sweet haze of MBV and one part the joyous  Psych infused Indie Rock of Ride, Dead Rabbits drag Shoegaze kicking and screaming into the now with a new record, although inspired by classic late 80s/early 90s psych influenced Indie Rock guitar bands is firmly rooted in 2016. Everything Is a Lie is the band’s third album for Fuzz Club and like their previous two records effortlessly blends Shoegaze, Neo-Psych and Post-Punk into a potent cocktail which is spiked with a twist of something more dark, dangerous and very modern.

Dead Rabbits channel the aforementioned Sonic Youth, MBV and Ride along with early Spacemen 3, Telescopes and Loop to create a sensory overload of  hazy, lethargically stoned vocals, washed-out and fuzzed-up guitars with whirling bass-lines and thundering percussion locking the album into a deep psychedelic groove. It’s a swirling, kaleidoscopic head rush of an album of the quality that Alan McGee would have released on Creation back in the day before partying non-stop with Primal Scream fucked his critical faculties and he gave Oasis a record deal. However, unlike many of the less determined Shoegazers currently stomping on delay pedals, Dead Rabbits are not stuck in that era……..they have checked out the original blue prints but have decided they want to do it their way. There are eight really strong tracks on Everything Is A Lie which fans of the original Shoegaze/Noise Pop/Indie Rock bands that have informed this LP will love with the stand outs being the fuzzy Indie Rock groove of title track, Dead Rabbits re-imaging of Spacemen 3 on ‘Get Me Over There’ and the squally album closer ‘You Already Know’ which places the the band firmly in this century with a vibe not unlike recent TOY records.

Everything Is A Lie is out NOW and should be available from all good record stores along with the usual online retailers. Released on vinyl, a limited edition (200 copies) white vinyl deluxe version and CD which you can also order direct from Fuzz Club with a download available here https://fuzzclub.bandcamp.com/album/everything-is-a-lie-2

Danish band The Wands really caught the attention of a whole bunch of PsychHeads with their stunning  first EP, Hello I Know The Blow You Grow Is Magic from late 2012, which paved the way for the release of their debut album (The Dawn on Fuzz Club in the autumn of 2014) which was an astounding collection of hallucinogenic Psych deeply endowed to 60s Nuggets-era Rock and Roll and Eastern-tinged Acid Rock. At this point, The Wands had grown from the brainchild of founders Christian Skibdal and Mads Gräs into a fully fledged band. Joined by Thomas Brandt (The Woken Trees) on drums and Kristoffer Hvidberg (Kiss Kiss Kiss) on bass, the album received widespread praise in the psychedelic blogosphere and the more turned on music press for its authentic Psychedelic sound, "it is an all-pervading wall-of-sound that infuses the straight up raw and gritty with a wild, kaleidoscopic, aural abandon. A complex record, yet clearly defined". The Wands have returned with a brand new EP, Faces, that is as trippy as anything on the debut album and if anything is more sonically expansive………….existing fans of the band certainly wont be disappointed and those new to the band are gonna have their minds blown. There is a little bit less of a complete 60s vibe with the new EP with The Wands now pulling in influences from further afield with the title track having a fantastic spiraling Rain Parade/Paisley Underground feel (watch the video here). It’s a trip with plenty of great tunes to keep PsychHeads more than happy………. ‘Cosmic Sinners’ is far out Garage/Psych fuzzy freak out while ‘Out Of Fever’ is a brooding slow burner which builds into a explosive tangle of noise and distortion before falling back to Earth. As with the first album, the spirit of The Wands emerges from the 60s and 70s—but it’s their ability to reach into the Psychedelic heart of those musical time periods and make something their own without resorting to blatant plagiarism that is simply unparalleled by many other bands. Another fantastic record by one of the best bands to emerge on the Psych scene in recent years…………….recommended.

Out NOW on Fuzz Club Records, the Faces EP is available on 10” vinyl in a run of 1000 copies (200 on white vinyl exclusive to Fuzz Club) and CD with a digital download available from the Fuzz Club Bandcamp page https://fuzzclub.bandcamp.com/album/faces. Get on the buzz People……….available from your groovy vinyl emporium, various on-line outlets and the Fuzz Club web store.


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