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Stuckometer, "Beta Carotene"
After several months of hefty improv submersion it’s possible to cultivate the taste buds enough to be able to sift out the quality from the claptrap. This is most definitely the former, a 21 minute improvised freak out wrapped in a brain-splurge primary colored aggro cover
The latest in Low Point’s 3" CD-R series sees various luminaries of the Manchester scene (pulled from Inca Eyeball, Sculptress and Our Beautiful Ridiculous Plan) pouring out their heads into a cauldron of kaleidoscopes. The highest praise here goes to the drummer who sounds like he’s leading the proceedings from the back; the rest of the quartet squalling in his wake like sparks from a firework. The cracked open snake pit of guitars could’ve ended up a mush of sounds if not for the fine recording job here by label head Gavin Hardwick.
"Beta Carotene"s creak-and-jerk onslaught begins with a manic sonic attack that slows down about half way though, as if everyone had got the caffeine (and the rest) out of their system. This whistling and drum lull (and low-key guitar work) court each other carefully till a Thurston/Ranaldo holocaust bursts into the room.
Again it’s the drummer who seems to be directing the performance as the music threatens to roll off the road into some Turkish psychedelic murder spree. The band lands in a pattern of heaving itself to its knees before being slumping to the floor as if shot in the head. The sounds rises and falls, rises and falls until a timely loose percussive end.
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