Album: Make It Pop!
Artist: Giddy Motors
Released: 2002
Rating: 4/5
Link: http://www.mediafire.com/d
Things this album is reminiscent of:
A crank-addled mugger with a tire iron
Driving into a brick wall going 90 while listening to Miles Davis records
An epileptic fit peppered with sudden especially violent outbursts
Early Minutemen albums if they were produced by Steve Albini and featured David Yow on vocals
Hopefully that gives you some idea of what you're in for. Giddy Motors, made up of Gaverick de Vis (guitar/vocals), Manu Ros (drums), and Gordon Ashdown (bass) are out to destroy, and Steve Albini (doing his usual production wizardry) is here to help. They play noisy, nasty, jazzy, bluesy, post-punk. I would call it punk, but post-punk seems more fitting because much like early post-punk like The Pop Group and GoF, they seem to have destroyed everything but punk's foundation and built from the ground up.
The music is assaultive and twisted, constantly exploding and bursting. Albini helps Vis achieve a metallic (the kind things are built with, not the music), scraping guitar tone, which he lets fly all over the tracks. In tracks like the opener "Magmaniac", he twitches and bounces all over the track, going for as scrapy and sound as possible. Meanwhile, on a track like "Dog Hands", he digs in and lets loose some real sludgy riffs. It's a nice contrast that continues throughout the record. Gordon Ashdown is a funky, wild bass player, filling in any spaces left open by Vis' guitar. Albini gives him a nice full sound that makes sure he's audible throughout. Most important, though, is Manu Ros. Ros' drumming is the one thing that anchors the band throughout. As Vis' and Ashdown go into complete chaos over the top, Ros keeps the band steady and keeps them from just falling apart completely. His skilled, jazzy percussion is definitely what holds them together. Vis' vocals are also wild and unrestrained, going from whispers to screams, crooning to speaking, dying noises to weird falsettos. They fit the music in their own way.
On an album filled with bursts of noise and violence, it's the moment's of quiet that are the most shocking. Sure, most of the album may knock your head in with brute force, but nothing will surprise you quite like "Venus Medalist". An instrumental with nothing but strings and relaxed guitar and bass for nearly five minutes, it pops in near the end of the album and at first makes you think it may be a different record. But nope, it's just five minutes of relaxing strings.
Worth a dl if you want to hear something different.
Highlights: "Hit Cap", "Dog Hands", Whirled By Curses"
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