Spider Goat Canyon - Shades Of Joy
It doesn't happen often that a cd arrives on your doorstep, you listen to it a few times and you still have no clue what to write about it. Australia’s Spider Goat Canyon is one of those bands who managed that. "Shades Of Joy" is their first full lenght release, and lenghty it is. Clocking in at almost 73 minutes, it offers you a trip through this band’s state of mind.
The band’s biography talks about the following: "A mix of Fu Manchu, Sonic Youth and Mogwai gone metal, and eerie, hypnotic, anvil heavy grooves". After numerous listenings, I can only agree. The band is very expiremental in nature, often utilizing slow, heavy rhytms and droning guitars. The occasional samples pop up their heads now and most of the (sparingly used) vocals are an understandable growl or just spoken word. The overal composition of the cd would do well as a soundtrack to an arty movie about vague arty stuff. It's hard to select a few single tracks that stand out because of the experimental nature of this band.
The band seems to be a jam band mainly, which shows in the overal songstructures. Oftenly starting with a beat, bass or guitarriff, the whole band builds onto the individiual segments, and only in rare occasions you’ll hear a song that has a standard structure. Heck, the song "Metallic Fly" is basically a 4 minute track where the main element is a high pitched buzz/fly sound, and "Nanobes" could just as well be an uptempo ISIS song. Some tracks are weird, some rock, and some try to get a sort of ambient atmosphere across.
The band seems to be a jam band mainly, which shows in the overal songstructures. Oftenly starting with a beat, bass or guitarriff, the whole band builds onto the individiual segments, and only in rare occasions you’ll hear a song that has a standard structure. Heck, the song "Metallic Fly" is basically a 4 minute track where the main element is a high pitched buzz/fly sound, and "Nanobes" could just as well be an uptempo ISIS song. Some tracks are weird, some rock, and some try to get a sort of ambient atmosphere across.
Fans of creative, droning and experimental music in general should definitely give it a try. For other people, download some samples from www.spidergoatcanyon.com and learn to appreciate it. This record is a piece of creative music instead of a commercially marketable cd with songs, and to quote Undertow Recording’s promotalk: "This is music for fans of Neurosis, The Melvis, Mogwai, etc". Which it is.
83/1001Details Chawfish / Undertow Recordings
Released on Thursday Aug 25th, 2005
Experimental Rock
Writer @Carn on Tuesday Oct 11th, 2005
Tags: #Spider Goat Canyon
Tracklisting
01 Day Break
02 Spider Goat Canyon
03 Recveational Chemo
04 R.S.I.
05 Moment In Time
06 Steve\'s Curious And Surreal Adventures In The Real
07 Nunlicker
08 Toaster
09 Metallic Fly
10 Feathered Rat
11 Prescriptions
12 Passive Stoner
13 Jizz Bottla
14 Nanobes
15 Circular Saw
16 Return Of The Jizz
17 Groove Canvas
18 Place Of Grocereal Coolness
02 Spider Goat Canyon
03 Recveational Chemo
04 R.S.I.
05 Moment In Time
06 Steve\'s Curious And Surreal Adventures In The Real
07 Nunlicker
08 Toaster
09 Metallic Fly
10 Feathered Rat
11 Prescriptions
12 Passive Stoner
13 Jizz Bottla
14 Nanobes
15 Circular Saw
16 Return Of The Jizz
17 Groove Canvas
18 Place Of Grocereal Coolness
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