by Brian Manley
Continuing their traipse of collaborations, Austin chaw-groove trio Spray Paint have teamed the dissociative noise-rock guitar-chomp they mine from the depths of dirt and flint with the outsider London electro-flail-art of The Rebel. The results are a bizarre drugged-out experiment in noisy loose thoughts, bizarre vocal lines and dark straying instrumentation.
Spray Paint are secured from some kind of hanging chain as flag-bearers of a version of modern biting narcotized noise-rock, twisting hairs between tightly wadded guitar strings and pounding drums that swerve without notice into unpredictable creeps or explosions, with a fog settling in that smells of surf-punk-garage. It’s like listening to Link Wray if he were in Harvey Milk and everyone huffed oven cleaner before a set. In essence, wonderful.
My knowledge and exposure are nil for London’s Ben Wallers, aka The Rebel, also from the band Country Teasers. The Rebel lives his own work of Stuckism, brandishing disassembled vocal lines with lyrics that are anything but precast, ruminating through distorted electronics with both spit anger and punched humor. Other reviews’ references to The Residents are apt, although I hear a fair amount of Billy Childish in the poetry and some Sexton Ming in the delivery (especially in the jangly stampede and lyrical vitriol of “Mitch, Mitch, Mitch”).
The resulting LP, Charles and Roy’s Purple Wang, is a loaded foray into unexpected turns with spasmodic keys, fiery sharp tremoloed clang guitars, stomped percussion, all ready to implode, shatter, puke all over you. “Look! Air Innit” might be one of my favorite tracks of 2018 now, and “Moron Water” is the equivalent walking down a hall, head turned sideways to adjust the focus, feet tripping enough to make you dangerous to anyone in your zone. The album reads as a “what the fuck?,” “why the fuck not?” and “fuck you” all at once. It’s creepy and disjointed which is why it’s good. I don’t know what the people are into these days, but whatever cough syrup insect-repellant liquid-mushroom is being mixed and swallowed, it makes things like “Heads on Spikes” happen, which make me stare towards a fake horizon and forget what for. Recommended.