Label: Golden Lab Records – ROWF 04 Format: Vinyl, LP, Limited Edition, Psychedelic Orange Country: UK Released: Feb 2007 Genre: Electronic, Jazz, Rock Style: Free Improvisation, Art Rock, Avantgarde, Experimental
From Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts with a gnarled, home-made clatter and drone comes Neptune. Part sculptural art metallurgy project, part rock band (no, scratch that -- ALL rock band), the three-piece formed initially to demonstrate, in an art gallery setting, the awesome crunk of band leader Jason Sandford's home-sculpted scrap metal instruments. Two world tours and one blistering album later, they're now set to release two new full-lengths on Table of the Elements (home to their heroes Faust, Tony Conrad and John Cale, amongst others). But not before this, the first recorded fruits of their unrelenting instinct for improvisation. The album, featuring five tracks and running at a fraction over forty minutes in length, was recorded in collaboration with their friends Jessica Rylan (Can't/Vampire Can't), Donna Parker and Kevin Micka. Reminiscent of '70s/'80s experimental post-prog innovators This Heat, the home-made electronics, found sounds and scrap metal are forged to create a familiar brand of searing, soaring, seething rock, played with virtuosity and gusto, yet with a sense of individuality inescapable in the shadow of the instruments' creation. With beautiful floral packaging designed by celebrated sleeve/poster artist and NME cartoonist Dave Bailey, and pressed on beautifully putrid orange and brown marbled vinyl, this improvised masterpiece is surely a contender for most collectible record of 2007... (NM/NM)
