I was really looking foward to a new release from Beninghove's Hangmen; their Rattlesnake Chopper EP was the sort of mix of surf, noise, skronk, free-jazz and who-knows that really got me excited. Unfortunately their new LP, though I've listened to it frequently, doesn't really hang out in surfland enough to fit this website. Why am I talking about them instead of Holy Mountain Top Removers? Because I feel like this band rushed in to fill the hole that I was expecting Beninghove's Hangmen to fill.
Not that I think these two bands would be necessarily confused: I don't hear any John Zorn in here, and I do hear a lot more 90's-Dick-Dale-gigantic-pounding-tribal-drum in this. But it does have that same avant-jazz-surf sense of rhythm and the twisty-windy guitar soloism that even breaks into a strange raga trance around "Iconoclaster Cupid" which breaks into tuvan throat singing for a minute or two. From there you get Bossanova, John Fahey-like sparseness, and then a gigantic longform build-up in "Fever Dreamer".
No doubt this isn't for everybody, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who hears stuff like this and thinks "SEND MORE PLEASE".
Since I've had so much fun namedropping in this, here's a few more relevant ones that I didn't properly fit in: Sonic Youth, Captain Beefheart, The Godz, Ole Tyme Relijun, Sun City Girls (though they never really got me too excited), probably Holy Modal Rounders, maybe Moondog. And then my jazz namedropping isn't really strong enough. Hopefully we all get the picture by now. You don't? Well then there's bandcamp, just listen to it.
