HOME BLITZ
Gulcher Records GULCH 609
http://www.myspace.com/homeblitz
This is a punky garage band from Princeton, NJ that sounds like authentic 1976-7 vintage but is in fact very much of today. They kick off the album which seems to be a compilation of home-made records so far with the phrase 'We're 'avin' a riot...' in a very English style. This is an exceedingly promising start to what turns out to be a pretty satisfactory LP.
In fact, the whole is not entirely just in the one style - the sound varies considerably throughout the album. It's sometimes quite like Jonathan Richman, sometimes a bit like The Ramones, at other times not punky at all.......
The longest number 'Yard' clocking in at nine & a half minutes is somethiing John Cage might have been proud of. Very experimental in nature - employing feedback and waow - fiddling with the knobs on the instruments and recording equipment, striking strings and microphone, with a variety of implements, stream of consciousness vocals, improvised vamping, using found sounds and ambient noise - it's all very interesting and astoundingly successful. 'Marquand Park' is even more so.
'Little League' is almost a Magic Band number from the Troutmask era. There's even a grungy version of Noddy Holder's 'My Town'. But my favourite track is a Modern Lovers type ditty called 'Stupid Street' recorded out on the street in front of main man Daniel DiMaggio's house. Out of the Garage, if you like!
This record is a masterpiece of DIY recording. Every Home Should have One and it deserves to be on the shelf in every college's music library as a paradigm of the genre.
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