|
Silent Treatment Mark D |
|
Upon first glance you're wondering exactly what this is supposed to be… Did Rick Springfield really re-ignite his career after all those VH1 appearances? Then on the flipside, of the cover, that is, you may erase any and all suggestion of clean and cut listener friendly… Mark D, you may remember him from his past work with The Melvins, Rock & Roll oddity from the undercurrent of popularity… And then again you may not. No matter, stepping out onto his own, akin to stepping off the face of earthbound expectation, this is a most unusual presentation bordering on equal parts lunar and lunacy, easy listening that's hard to swallow, psychedelically delicious and terminally out of focus. On one hand you're coming up Talking Heads, the next you're time traveling thirty years to the past, sucked into some warbled vacuum chamber and grinning from ear to ear at the sonic pulsations that turn your skin red while delighting you quickly dulling senses. But D's got the knack for front and center abnormality like few others could imagine-again pointing to The Melvins, here, in the same time honored titular tradition, welcome to "El Morocco," home of the famed Morocco Steaks… or hardened criminals depending on your viewpoint as you stretch open the cover inlay in a failed attempt at uncovering the inner workings of these outer worldly noises… "Coffinmakers Complaint," soothing, soulful, it carries you away in an ethereal fantasy bent on mind devoid of matter and beneath the dial frequencies… "Fat Hamlet's" another good one, a guitar plodding meddler reminiscent of the finest backward playing record of Devil-speak. Try to make sense of it all and you're lost a minute in… taken for what it's worth, the personality that made The Melvins so offbeat is present and accounted for, the music is even a step farther out there in a litter in the wind twisted Pink Floyd sort of way… Released by Tee Pee Records Review by Vinnie Apicella
[va85@columbia.edu] |