death: for the whole world to see
another week another lost classic one-off singular vision re(re)leased on vinyl. cheers drag city.
the history:
three brothers (in the genealogical/genetic sense) from motor city called death (not the chuck schuldiner (r.i.p.) death) record most of an album, sign to columbia, refuse to change their name, the deal goes awry, the album promptly disappears into label hell, they press copies of the single politicians in my eyes and promptly bugger off.
fast forward twenty five years:
one’s sadly dead. the other two are doing reggae. what there was of …for the whole world to see comes out on drag city. the people rejoice. huzzah!
the record veers between the stomping-hard creepy-rock of alice cooper and sabbath and the electric mayhem of the stooges and mc5. even a proggy vibe schneaks in unannounced. pretty goddam far removed from the motown / phili scene anyway. part of the outré ambience probably owes something to the production work of parliament/funkadelic engineer jim vitti. total latentpunk protometal aggression combined with some feline slinkiness and warm psyche-y invention that moves it slightly away from the dead eyed nihil and politic posturing of their detroit contemporaries.
which isn’t to say it don’t earn it’s bad-ass rock chops. it just intersperses the under three minute distorto geetar of freakin’ out with some fivesix minute unpredictability: jittering melody, staccato rhythmic freak outs, drum solos, handclaps and angular dynamics. let the world turn mashes reverbed miasma, woozing ghost vocals and full-off fuck-on string spanking action into three hundred and sixty seconds.
it’s a goddam beauty of a record but way too fucking short. thank clive davis.
anyhoo here’s the dirtbombs covering politicians in my eyes.
ciao!
