HR088 - The Velvet Swines - A Trip To Ollywood - C60 — 1989
Side A:
A Trip To Ollywood Here Comes The Fear |
Side B:
Sombre Reptiles Don't Do Drugs Love Sandwich Funkytown |
REVIEW by Jerry Kranitz
The Velvet Swines are an 8-piece from Langhorne, Pennsylvania who play raw and wildly free-wheeling experimental punk, and every track includes lots of crazy voices. None of the band members are credited with instrumentation, but judging by how stripped down the music is, and the emphasis on vocals, I’m guessing at least a few of them might be vocals only.
Side A is dominated by the 21+ minute title track. It opens with scratchy rhythmic hip-hoppy grooves, but also multiple garbled ranting, moaning despair, and spoken word vocals. Along with the hip-hop vibe is a lo-fi experimental punk aesthetic, making for a raucously groovy rocking trip. Later the guitar cranks out some dirty chords and licks and there are even some tasty spaced out bits. Overall, it’s raw and weirdly fun, and the vocals are what keeps things interesting. The Swines seem to be enjoying themselves though it might have been better at a tighter half the length.
The drumming throughout ‘Here Comes The Fear’ sounds like the intro to a classic rock song, creating a foundation for more goofy vocals/voices, high speed dentist drill effects, molten rumbling, oscillations, and other effects. Toward the end of the piece a sense of ambient song is briefly introduced, which might have made for a more cohesive track if it had been there from the beginning.
‘Sombre Reptiles’ opens the B side with a glom of prominent drumming, wigged out guitar licks, and spaced out whirly swirly tornadic effects. But soon the VOICES come scampering in like an acid-punk ensemble of chipmunks, gobble-gobble turkeys and other dosed creatures. I like the dirty rocking psych guitar throughout. And at one point it sounds like a nicely freaked out dual guitar interplay.
‘Don’t Do Drugs’ might be my favorite track of the set, combining grooving jazzy party drumming and soloing guitar that’s part Snakefinger and part art damaged blues rock, plus there’s a didgeridoo sounding drone swaying throughout. And, of course, absolutely manic singing. I like the spacey didgeridoo drone fade at the end.
‘Love Sandwich’ starts as a chaotic blend of rumbling drone, insects, tinkling keys, growly rant vocals, and a lot of silly fun with slowing down and speeding up the tape, though the drums soon corral everyone into something more disjointedly cohesive.
‘Funkytown’ picks up right where ‘Love Sandwich’ left off, adding some cool ambience and spacey effects amidst the incessant percussion and variety of nutty vocals.
In summary, The Velvet Swines are all about grooves (mostly the same ones) and zany vocals. The vocals are the stars of the show, keeping things weirdly fun throughout.
Note that the cassette artwork was done by Matt Howarth! Visit Matt’s online store at http://www.bugtownmall.com
The Velvet Swines are an 8-piece from Langhorne, Pennsylvania who play raw and wildly free-wheeling experimental punk, and every track includes lots of crazy voices. None of the band members are credited with instrumentation, but judging by how stripped down the music is, and the emphasis on vocals, I’m guessing at least a few of them might be vocals only.
Side A is dominated by the 21+ minute title track. It opens with scratchy rhythmic hip-hoppy grooves, but also multiple garbled ranting, moaning despair, and spoken word vocals. Along with the hip-hop vibe is a lo-fi experimental punk aesthetic, making for a raucously groovy rocking trip. Later the guitar cranks out some dirty chords and licks and there are even some tasty spaced out bits. Overall, it’s raw and weirdly fun, and the vocals are what keeps things interesting. The Swines seem to be enjoying themselves though it might have been better at a tighter half the length.
The drumming throughout ‘Here Comes The Fear’ sounds like the intro to a classic rock song, creating a foundation for more goofy vocals/voices, high speed dentist drill effects, molten rumbling, oscillations, and other effects. Toward the end of the piece a sense of ambient song is briefly introduced, which might have made for a more cohesive track if it had been there from the beginning.
‘Sombre Reptiles’ opens the B side with a glom of prominent drumming, wigged out guitar licks, and spaced out whirly swirly tornadic effects. But soon the VOICES come scampering in like an acid-punk ensemble of chipmunks, gobble-gobble turkeys and other dosed creatures. I like the dirty rocking psych guitar throughout. And at one point it sounds like a nicely freaked out dual guitar interplay.
‘Don’t Do Drugs’ might be my favorite track of the set, combining grooving jazzy party drumming and soloing guitar that’s part Snakefinger and part art damaged blues rock, plus there’s a didgeridoo sounding drone swaying throughout. And, of course, absolutely manic singing. I like the spacey didgeridoo drone fade at the end.
‘Love Sandwich’ starts as a chaotic blend of rumbling drone, insects, tinkling keys, growly rant vocals, and a lot of silly fun with slowing down and speeding up the tape, though the drums soon corral everyone into something more disjointedly cohesive.
‘Funkytown’ picks up right where ‘Love Sandwich’ left off, adding some cool ambience and spacey effects amidst the incessant percussion and variety of nutty vocals.
In summary, The Velvet Swines are all about grooves (mostly the same ones) and zany vocals. The vocals are the stars of the show, keeping things weirdly fun throughout.
Note that the cassette artwork was done by Matt Howarth! Visit Matt’s online store at http://www.bugtownmall.com