After a quick reflection on the madness of "pedalgate", JR Moores takes us back to his favorite psychological and noise rock record this year

Some chimpanzees by Steve Gulick

I was very tired when writing this. At first, I wanted to talk about the feeling of fatigue this year, which sounds a bit spoiled from the overall picture. After all the time we spent indoors, apart from our reliable all-weather postman in shorts and the Plexiglas Sainsbury staff at the back, almost no one had contact with anyone since "Freedom Day" The incident has been unstoppable. For me, whether from a professional or personal perspective, from the ordinary to the miserable, I need to deal with unprecedented troubles. Does it always take three days to recover from a performance, or am I just getting old?

But, hey, come on, when someone accused the guitar pedal of being a devil, I got irritated from hibernation in the testicles. I mean... wait a minute. Ok. What? "Can someone explain to my [sic] why people playing the guitar decided to revive the shoe gaze/dream pop and embrace a stupid retro shit like Weezer in an era full of violence, economic inequality and abortion bans? "Tobi Vail in bikini asked about killing people on Twitter. "The guitar pedal industrial complex is not a revolutionary sound." Don't get me wrong. I don't like indifference, just like the next hypocrite who is drinking and playing with the iPhone. But come on! First of all, in this era, which serious person is still listening to Weize? Secondly, guitar pedals have always been great, they will always be, and it is a bit stupid to accuse them of supporting or failing to challenge this political and social dirty behavior.

Shoegaze is on the cutting edge on its agenda. Of course, not all. Not my sulfuric acid. But do you remember the first time you heard Loveless's disorientation? Shoegaze is an ambiguous style, abstract, androgynous, sexy in an equal opportunity way, not British rock #ladzbantz. It's hard to be sure. Who is making this sound and how do they do it? Why is the song itself so secondary to the wobbly structure? Why do I suddenly feel dizzy? Why does this matter prompt me to ask so many questions?

Totalitarians hate that kind of shit. When the National Socialist Party started to purge Germany’s so-called “degenerate art”, they didn’t just want to purge the country’s cartoon depictions of Adolf Hitler, which looked like a sad little bastard. It’s inevitable that Otto Dix’s anti-war canvas has become a target, but Ernst Ludwig Kirchner’s expressionist scene, Van Gogh’s view of the wheat field Vivid depictions, Paul Klee's post-Cubist works, Piet Mondrian's geometric minimalism...

why? Because authority is well aware of its crumbling stilts, and power is threatened by various artistic (and musical) expressions, not just the targets of direct, severe, or obvious controversy.

The extreme right is something real, serious, and dangerous. So is the insatiable capitalism that may destroy the earth (at least we frivolous humans). But certainly few people yearn for such a musical environment, in which every band is deprived of its pedals and forced to shout in the slender sub-Fugazi riff, "Laurence Fox smells of trash can juice smell". Just like the faith, love and mystery in "X-Men", rebellion and resistance can take many different forms. Anyway, this is what I told myself.

Since Woody Guthrie didn't write on his wooden machine, these guitar pedals challenge the bad guys in various and not always obvious ways!

Now I have taken it out of my chest. These are my ten favorite psychological and noise rock records in 2021, listed in reverse alphabetical order, just because I like this arrangement.

Steam Theory – Celestial Scuzz (Fire)

Since "Under The Pines" in 2017, there has been no suitable new Bardo Pond album. At the same time, we had to fix various redistributions of Fire and Matador and the ambiguity in this Vapor Theories version. Michael Gibbons is on the guitar, John Gibbons is on the other guitar, and there are many effect pedals on their toes, basically like listening to a Bardo Pond album, without any rhythm part or singing (not yet). I just want to say that it is bloody and beautiful. Inject this twist directly into my vein.

The hand of a sunburnt man-die another day (three petals)

Sunburned Hand Of The Man, who once toasted New Weird America, returned to our turntable this year after being absent for many years. This is the quality and breadth of Pick A Day To Die material, you can almost mistake it for the best. Perhaps to some extent, it is a combination of conferences held in 2007, 2008, 2016, 2017, and 2020. Although it provides a broken pregnancy and a variety of exciting jams, they all fit together very well. The record guy gently and quickly turned to the Autobot, who was oriented towards chicken dinner. Then it started to sound like Trans Am. 'Black Lights' is like an attempt by John Carpenter's band in classic funk music. J Mascis appeared at the end, offering one of his signature affectionate solos, perhaps to eliminate the fact that drummer John Moloney had been yelling steak and fish a few seconds ago.

Richard Pinhas and Duncan Pinhas-source (Bam Balam)

"A radical adult licks the style of Godhead!", as Thurston Moore said. Heldon and the solo guitar alchemist Richard Pinhas are in their 70s and still play lively space rock on the launch pad. His son Duncan also joined him (he is also a solo musician). Arthur Nancy appeared in several tracks, providing quick and active drum beats. The duet is equally exciting, because the sounds of the guitar and synthesizer twist and rotate together, inspiring the imagination of the audience. Given the otherworldly feel of Sources, not to mention the fact that Pinhas is a famous Herbert fan, this should really be commissioned as the soundtrack for the new Dune movie everyone is talking about, not Hans Thingy.

Part of chimpanzee-drooling (wrong speed)

"Don't play with the formula," this is Tim Cedar's attitude towards Part Chimp, as he told tQ in March. So, instead of doing anything new, or trying to play better or learning how to rap, the noise rock department changed tags to freshen things up, from Rock Action in Mogwai to Wrong Speed ​​Records in Joe Thompson. When questioned, Cedar admitted that his current vocals are easier to hear, and the mastering is slightly less "vulgar" than their earlier output. Nonetheless, what we have here is that Part Chimp continues to do what they do best, which is to be as heavy, noisy, hairy and drooling as possible for primates, while yelling worms and the like. Needless to say, even if you turn the stereo volume down to the lowest, Drool's sound is unfathomably high.

Continue to trouble the orchestra-attention (riot season)

From their complete thumping and relentless repetition of sounds, I have always believed that the constantly suffering orchestras are completely world-weary, bent on inciting some kind of human-destroying rock doomsday by tapping their instruments over and over again, until a wormhole. Open to do this universe a favor by devouring all of us. That's because I judged them on their studio albums, including the fourth one, which hurt the old loopholes in the best way. Then I received some shots of them on the stage, which read "In the live environment, they are happier than you think [smiley face]". It turns out that they are a party band, with smiles on their faces and lively dance moves! Given this new information, "Following" is more interesting than initially.

Monster Magnet-Better Dystopia (Napalm)

Musicians deal with locking in many different ways. The worst culprits there, Lord and Frank Turner, are busy writing some opportunistic national anthems, and they can "give up" once the social restrictions are about to end. Don't you like to use the return of "unity" to cover up the fact that many people have died at the same time? Dave Wendoff adopts a different strategy to deal with regrettable situations by studying his past in depth. He collected this energetic cover series (mostly) carefully selected from an era, in his opinion, the band has put in more effort to shock the audience's socks, and usually make them feel strange. Not only is it the most exciting and passionate-sounding Monster Magnet album in a while, it's also the best cover album you've heard throughout the year. Apologies to Chen Marshall.

Melvins-Working with God (Tugen)

Even considering Buzz Osborne's preference for colorful muumuus, Melvins itself may not be considered a spiritual rock. Although they are noisier than Kanye West's inner monologue and rockier than the marriage of Strictly contestants, they may not qualify for noise rock. However, Kez Whelan's excellent metal column does not cover cooperation with God, and tQ has not yet launched its coveted regular roundup, which is a junk but not really junk release. Melvins is their own genre and their own law. By default, working with God ends here. Showing off the vitality and disrespect of men half their age and under, this series is fun ("Fuck me"), catchy ("Brian, horse-faced thug"), and usually fast ("Bouncing Rick") , Sometimes slow ('Hot Fish'), a little weird ('Caddy Daddy'), and simply full of thick improvisations. May they be long Melvin.

Kohoutek – Jurad (Cardinal Fuzz/Feeding Tube)

Jurad is one of Kohoutek's shorter releases, which only occupies two aspects of wax, rather than extending the improvisation to a more suitable CD format. It still started to slow. For the first ten minutes or more, these Philadelphia thinkers focused their attention on quiet flickers, soft jingles and hums. By then, the careless thumb twitchers among us may have left, bombarding their own bad senses with a series of TikTok Tupperware hacking attacks. More discerning listeners will stick to it, wondering what happens around the corner, and will be rewarded with some of the best and most bulky space rocks, the mimosa side. (Double stars, not citrus cocktails.) Lovely things.

Howlin' Rain – Dharma Wheel (Silver Flow)

As Ethan Miller revealed to tQ in October, The Dharma Wheel was originally intended to be a triple album, offering two and a half hours of psychedelic contemplation on the grand theme of America and paying tribute to Dante's Inferno. Now, this sounds amazing. Unfortunately, the entire obnoxious pandemic business forced Howlin' Rain to leave the road and enter the studio without the funds available to fulfill all of his ambitions. It doesn't matter, because the record is epic enough. It has six tracks, the shortest is six minutes, and the longest is sixteen minutes (666, is it? Call Dante on the psychic board, hurry up!). It shows the "rain" in their game. (Sorry for the rhyme there. I have epics in my head now.)

GNOD-La Mort Du Sens (Rocket)

Obviously, any 21-year mental rock review that does not include GNOD is not worth the unsustainable effort to put it on your screen. The guitar on La Mort Du Sens sounds as metallic as Big Black fighting some haunted armor. There is absolutely correct number of drummers in this lineup: more than one. There is a good balance between the suffocating impromptu passages and the loose noise in the middle of the song. There are some wild saxophones in one passage. Even if you tie Paddy Shine to the chair of the Cambridge Corn Exchange and force him to sit on the chair throughout the performance of "A Night of Singing and Laughing with Rob Braden and His Wonderful Band", he The voice doesn’t sound more angry. What more can you ask for? More tracks, maybe? But if it were a two-player album, none of us might not come out alive.

Electric Wizards: A Tapestry of Heavy Music, 1968 To The Present by JR Moores, published by Reaktion Books, will be a great Christmas gift for the music lovers mentioned above, especially those with big stockings

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