Gary War - Horribles Parade

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5...according to our Brian on Thu 01 Oct, 2009.

Gary War just got a right glowing write-up in esteemed spod rag The Wire, a weighty academic tome even I can relate to these days. That "Hypnagogic Pop" malarky though, I thought it was the NME's job to pigeonhole the latest sounds? This album, 'Horribles Parade', is indeed a very odd creature. Coming over like euphoric, drunken 80's pop played underwater inside a rusty oil drum, there's definitely similarities to Blank Dogs' warped, mystic lo-fi vision in that these wonderful melodies blaze through the insane vocal gurgles & muddied atmospherics. At times, beneath the aquatic distortion and fluid textural assault, this record sounds to me like early Teardrop Explodes as played by Northern English cabaret proggers Cleckhuddersfax but at other junctures I hear a metronomic, perverted krautrock with erratic basslines, virtually electro-esque drum pulses, diving, swooping alien synths with this coat of truly bizarre aural glue holding the crazy mess together. Yes, Gary War is a weirdo & his vision of future pop is absolutely terrific. I mean 'No Payoff' sounds like early Felt on acid drowning in a fishtank!! Some of the bass playing on this record is totally fucked up & freeform! There's nods to 60's psych garage but also a truly warped love of bands such as Devo & the more extreme DIY end of UK post punk - Swell Maps & the home taping/experimental scrawl of the Messthetics endorsed suburban outsider scene Yet all in all Gary War sound like Gary War - intergalactic explorerers out to screw with your head. Murky, perverted Pop with it's head buried in a particularly tasty compost heap teeming with all kinds of unique bacteria & strange eco-systems, coming out reeking of individuality plus an healthy whiff of happy madness. CD has tracks from 'Galactic Citizens, Vinyl is beautifully screen printed! On Sacred Bones.

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   1. Highspeed Drift
   2. Sold Out
   3. See Right Thru
   4. No Payoff
   5. For Cobra
   6. Costumes
   7. Clean Up
   8. What You Are
   9. Orange Trails
10. Nothing Moving
11. Anhedonic Man
12. Everynight
13. Next Year
14. Carleen’s Yard
15. Scales
16. God Trip
17. Using

Horribles Parade is the new full length from Gary War. This is the second album and the followup to last years’ New Raytheonport LP on SHDWPLY Records. The album expands on the more stripped down sound of his Sacred Bones “Zontag” single, plying layers of warm fuzz and feedback on top of psychedelic pop song structures. The CD contains “Anhedonic Man,” previosly released as a one-sided single on Hell Yes! records, as well as the whole Galactic Citizens 12" EP, soon to be relased on Captured Tracks.