Part of what's great about being a fan of Osees is that they know they have a rabid fanbase who never feel overloaded with releases. Most of us, I'd wager, obsess over music in general, not just Osees releases, and the band see something of themselves in their fans in this way. Just as John Dwyer would be psyched to discover the side projects of Can or archival Miles Davis fusion era boxsets, he must also know his fans love releases like Metamorphosed, a weird wobbly beast of an album with three short leftover Face Stabber outbursts on side A, and two lengthy jams (recorded in one day while in Mexico for a festival) on side B.
And then I had to go and make things even more jumbled by also wanting to talk about two singles that are unrelated to anything on Metamorphosed in this Retrospective. You're welcome!
Metamorphosed was released on October 16th, 2020. It has been given many, many different pressings and variants, so I won't even attempt to list them all given how wrong my info was on Levitation Sessions 1. As alluded to earlier, in this Retrospective I'll also be talking about two singles: 'Dark Weald' and 'Blood On Your Boots.' The former was released with no b-side on November 3rd, 2020 as a digital download, as well as a few limited 7” vinyl pressings. The latter was released on November 5th, 2020, as part of the compilation Be Gay, Do Crimes put out by Girlsville Records. The compilation was officially released on August 1st, so I'm guessing the November 5th date was when Osees could sell it separately. Anyway, we're going to start with the two singles and then get back to Metamorphosed.
'Blood On Your Boots' I have less to say about, and even less info about. Based on its sound it has to be from the current lineup, maybe even being another Protean Threat castaway, but I couldn't find anything about its origins. The song has a surging, ascending quality and feels as though it ends right as it's truly getting going. I'd love for them to bust this out live, maybe segueing into or out of another song to take advantage of its momentum. Unlike 'Dark Weald' I could totally see this being somewhere in the latter half of Protean Threat.
OK, now for the main attraction: Metamorphosed. 'Saigant' absolutely tears down the house from the second you drop the needle, and is arguably heavier than a lot of what passes for metal today. I can definitely see why it was left off of Face Stabber, because it already had its necessary amount of kick-down-the-door, tear-the-roof-off short songs. Letting off the throttle a bit, 'Electric War' settles into a pounding drum-and-bass-led throbbing pulse as twirling guitars and burbling keyboards coat the background. Side A draws to a close with one final Face Stabber orphan, 'Weird And Wasted Connection', which seems a bit undercooked and appropriately outtake-y. All the usual Osees sonic elements are there, but used in kind of boring and half-committed ways. Despite being sub-two minutes it overstays its welcome.
Next we flip this beast over to side B, where the real meat of Metamorphosed lies. According to an interview with Dwyer on the Coachella Valley Independent website posted around the time of the Levitation Sessions 1 broadcast:
“That album (Face Stabber) is just such a behemoth, and was too much to listen to for some people.[...]There’s a lot of material that wasn’t throwaways, but just didn’t fit with the aesthetic of the record. I saved those for another EP, and it took a while to get enough material for it. Then we went down to play a festival in Hermosillo in Mexico, and part of the deal for playing the festival was that we’d get to spend a day at the beach and have a day of studio time there. We went in there and just jammed, and got two pretty great tracks.[...]It was supposed to be an EP, but it turned into a 40-minute album. That’s just the way it goes with us; we have constant creation.”
While I wonder if his experience jamming more on tour and on studio releases like Metamorphosed and Face Stabber led Dwyer to start up his improv/jazz side projects, I should try to focus on discussing these two long jams that are in front of me. Though it's the shorter of the two, I find 'The Virologist' more repetitive and tedious. It's essentially just a long vamp with soloing over the top. The bass and drums are doing almost exactly the same thing for more than 13 minutes straight while Dwyer and Dolas make spacey noises and occasional ear piercingly loud guitar interjections. I can see some Osees devotees really digging this track, but much like 'Nervous Tech (Nah John)' from An Odd Entrances it doesn't do anything for me. 'I Got A Lot', however, does something for me. It's still not as good of a long jam track as 'Henchlock' but it reminds me a bit of early Can ('Yoo Doo Right') or Velvet Underground ('Sister Ray') in terms of being a long, brute simple, repetitive track with hypnotic vocals that are constantly shifting in delivery and style, and coming in and out of the song. All of that said, I think both of these jam tracks sound more or less like what you'd expect from unedited improv. They're the sort of tracks that are great to play as background music for something else, like grinding levels in RPGs or watching those color changing candles melt while you're on edibles. But as 'songs' you'll give your full attention to, they unfortunately don't work as well. I'm sure it was really fun to play them but listening to them with undivided focus and/or while sober is a bit dull.
Well, much like John Dwyer, I got a lot on my mind, because I've never actually listened to Panther Rotate and it's next on the Retrospective itinerary. As I finish writing this sentence I'm about to hit play...
No comments:
Post a Comment