Ashtray Navigations - Red Culture

vinyl LP reissue of long out of print CDR from 2006. Limited to 220 numbered copies in red vinyl. one of the most popular Ashtray Navigations releases with the Todd/Crowley/Legard band in full force. here's what the FOXY DIGITALIS site had to say about the original CDR release... Ashtray Navigations have released many CDRs and come up with some pretty sick album titles (e.g. "Some Cat Lost In His Own Picture", "Never Grew Out Of Being Holden Caulfield"). This new-ish installment, "Red Culture", gathers together 3 tracks of kaleidoscopic noise by the trio line-up of Todd, Delaney, Legard--recorded in a single day. I'm usually interested in small runs and personal touches with records. This CDR doesn't disappoint. It's hand-numbered and housed in a spray-painted clamshell case. You could say Ashtray offer a tonic for modern My Space culture. They compete with the deluge of mp3s most bands distribute by releasing fuck loads of CDRs (maybe around 1 a month) instead. HOW TO MAKE A VORTEX IN SOUND. "Railroad Poet" kicks off the disc and is its centrepiece: 25 minutes of increasingly frenzied psych. The initial cross-legged keyboard tinkering is soon swamped with fuzz. The volume increase. Tension rises until the guitars are screaming and it feels like the walls are about to melt. Finally, hypnotic drums (well into-the-red, of course) pull this vortex of sound in around the kit to create a heaving stasis of sweat. Nice. The disc winds down with 2 shorter tracks. "iPod Catastrophe" trades screaming sonic love for disorientation and claustrophobia. The band employ scummy guitar tones and bleating tinitus electronics to make you feel like you've drunk far too much at a party and can't register anything beyond "ugh", until luckily someone turns it off. "Bitter Lemon Licks" wraps up the set in sparse style. No guitars this time, just paranoid drone, some loose tambourine and cymbal action, and skittering electronics that sound like angry rats darting between the speakers. 8/10 -- Matt Lindley (9 October, 2006) plus some new CDRs...

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