NOISE CULTURE
MEOW MEOW - CRACKED (Integrity Records)
Tracks:
1. Cracked
2. Not Worth Recovering
3. Nature is a Machine
When they weren't a post-punk version of The Velvet Underground,
The Jesus and Mary Chain were fixated by the West Coast harmonies
of the Beach Boys, although their good vibrations also (thankfully)
involved serious slices of nasty Glaswegian noise.
Judging my the downloads available on their website, Los Angeles
based Meow Meow clearly have lots of time for these aforementioned
bands. However, the main track here - Cracked - combines in-yer-face
high pitched samples, some gentle country-tinged guitar and a serious
fetish for The Boo Radleys and Spacemen 3. And waddya know? It's
a bizarre but winning combination.
The fervour continues on Not Worth Recovering, a bouncy pop song
that is given real presence by some bombastic and pointed electronic
samples, and Nature is a Machine, a fuzzy languid affair that involves
all manner of sonic swirls and old-time brass interjections starkly
contrasted against a drum machine and full on guitar overload. This
might have all been a horrid mess yet spot-on-production means that
every nuance is allowed to shine through.
Meow Meow's debut album Snow Gas Bones is already out in the states
and is due in the UK in September. If you're an aficionado of the
aforementioned British indie bands then you'd be doubtless well chuffed
by this American band's unashamed admiration for them. What goes
round comes back around but the electronic attacks in these laid
back tunes gives them a real razor's edge. Feel the pain...
-ADRIAN LUTHER-SMITH
http://www.noise-online.com/meow.html
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