Awesome Color - Awesome Color (Ecstatic Peace)
4/5
By: Chris O'Toole
With the world up in arms about American cultural imperialism it becomes increasingly difficult to justify the British passive submission to its corrosive influence. As our own creative drive flounders and fails taste makers a continent away, over whom we have only the most cursory of influence, define what we wear, eat, watch and (most importantly) what we listen to. As a result McDonalds force filth down the throats of obese youths, Hollywood blockbusters annihilate the indigenous film industry, global brands bent on the destruction of the third world clothe our infants and multinational musical corporations decide what clogs the airwaves.
Awesome Color is the panacea to these concerns. In an instant their brand of psych-rock obliterates anything produced in this country this decade; brutally murdering the self important skinny jean wearing hipsters and their po-faced crooner counterparts in their sleep. America has produced a rock behemoth in the truest sense, capable of blowing away the frail competition offered by the finest this country has to offer.
Their self titled debut is the first UK release by Ecstatic Peace Records and Tapes, the label originally set up by Thurston Moore to release live Sonic Youth Material, and is a silver bullet to the morass of contemporary music. Moore himself shares the production duties on the record, combining the amplified whiplash guitar hooks and ten-year-old tight rhythm section into one formidable unit. The sound is unselfconscious and without irony, capturing the simple anything goes bravado of a band on the up; walls of cosmic guitar hooks slashed liberally into the face of car accident bass and drums.
The building blocks of this sound are obvious. Guitarist Derek Stanton grew up in same neighbourhood as Scoot 'Rock Action' Asheton of the Stooges and the band was formed in their home town of Ann Abor, Michigan. The influence is palpable throughout the album, although it never quire reaches the nihilistic extremes of the punk pioneers. (Stanton only slashes at the guitar, not his own body, as Iggy would once have done). This core element is diluted with liberal splashes of Black Sabbath riff crunching and attempts at Acid Mothers Temple guitar virtuosity, but again falls short of the mastery these bands display in their respective fields.
What Awesome Color achieves is the manipulation of these sounds into one cohesive whole. Lead by Staunton the band hammer out eight, distinctive, blues-rock jams held loosely together with the most fraught of structures and the most basic of melodies. The result is the music stone-age hunters listened to on the way to kill, the music Mayan priests heard as they slaughtered the hundredth virgin of the day, it is primitive, destructive and enthralling. Good times appear to be mandatory for the band as they careen through their set barely pausing for breathe.
The self titled album is an incredible starting point for the band. It is also reflective of their live show where they do indeed dress up in the hippy-in-a-car-accident clothes they sport on the album sleeve. The only concern is the direction the band is headed. The Stooges lasted three albums, but then, they invented this sound. Awesome Color are going to need a fresh injection of inventiveness, or a whole new collection to plunder, to prevent their follow up from becoming pastiche of their idols.
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