The Skull Defekts - Peer Amid

The Skull Defekts are a Swedish experimental rock band with a slew of decent releases out on various labels that include important, Kning Disk, Conspiracy, Utech, Release The Bats, Riot Season and iDEAL. They also put a split out with Italian band In Zaire that I recently spent some time touring with in my band NOPE. These guys are already a well respected pillar of the Swedish experimental underground so now would be a good time for them to collaborate with some kind of awesome nomad-esque beardy dude who knows his way confidently around the English language. Enter one Daniel Higgs of Baltimore legends Lungfish. Now, I'm a big fan of both of these groups so It's gonna take some doing to underwhelm hence I'm slightly biased when it comes to my opinions of 'Peer Amid'. I was instantly excited by the proposal and I'm not at all disappointed by the brooding effort they have conceived together. Opener and title track 'Peer Amid' rocks a sways on the spot like a gibbering homeless or a drugged up space cadet at a krautrock gig. It's a total winner. Then they hit us up with a punk rocking tune that packs a right selection of riffs. Next up it's a visit to Lungfish country with 'Gospel Of The Skull', a repeato-style tune with an effortless guitar riff and some nice drones to keep things ticking over. Higg's voice then goes all eastern inflected and they come off sounding like a mutant This Heat covers band, which is well good. I'm surprised at how well constructed this album is. I expected both parties to be a lot more abstract and experimental in their approach but, for the most part they deliver proper tunes you can almost dance carefully balanced against the more abstract stuff that ends the album. Great stuff from both parties.