Drake, Bob - The Skull Mailbox CD
SKU
RERCTA9
"Bob Drake was one half of Indie rock group Hail, and still plays bass with ruthless avant rockers The 5UUS. His previous solos Little Black Train introduced us to his version of Death-Country, and Medallion Animal Carpet followed up with what sounded like a collaboration between Bonnie Prince Billy and Captain Beefhart. And now theres Skull Mailbox. With this CD Drake has lost it altogether. Strange little picked guitar pieces are the basis for grotesque songs; a seance goes horribly wrong, headless ghosts fly about, and everyone ends up dead, or locked in the cellar, or both. If this sounds strange so far, the production sends the material right over the edge. Occasionally drums pop out of the far left of the speaker, vocals far right, grungeing noises appear without warning, and everything has a rotting compost quality which makes it sound like it was recorded in a decaying barn - which indeed it was!
“The strangest so far. Mostly songs; a lot of acoustic instruments, a lot of unidentifiable sounds, a lot of fragments borne on a wind from somewhere else; bizarre picking interludes, humour (maybe) and snatches of incandescent playing. You can't pin this one down; it's full of twists and turns and a geometry that doesn't quite add up. Seemingly casual, there's not an ounce of fat on it, and the production - or anti-production - is, on repeated listening, quite extraordinary. Impressive.”-Chris Cutler