Friday, November 1, 2013

#1044 The Outsiders (Dutch) - Outsiders

The Dutch band, not the British or American Outsiders, who banged out galloping, stuttering, Stonesey rock in the late 60's.

There's a strange little stunt at the heart of this album. The first side's a rollicking set of live songs packed impotent Roky Erickson mania; everything's a dozen BMP too fast and tense and falling all over itself, and it kind of just slips through your fingers, only occaisionally striking sparks. Woah, these guys were kinda loose, frantic motherfuckers live , you reckon.

So you flip the disc and the studio side's got the exact same problem: everything a 35th beat behind itself and under itself and the band's wheels feel like they're coming off, and new wheels are appearing from some secret compartment, and coming off, and some other compartment opens and wheels, gone, constantly, for 2 and a half minutes at a time. Is this a choice? You Won't Listen's as prescient of punk as the 60's got, Don't You Cry can't seem to keep up with itself, and its all, a bit off.

It's intriguing shit - their tense, batshit approach to tempos is either the thing that keeps them from being any good or the only thing making them great, and damned if I can figure out which. Skip the live side's thin mix and check out the studio side that'll clench your grimace into a smile 3.5/5

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