Slomatics / Selaah | ‘Split’

Slomatics have been consistently excellent, with their ‘Flooding The Weir’ cd from a couple of years ago being the best they’ve done. This split with one man loop botherer Hornby, aka Selaah, marks an even more enjoyable step up for them - mainly because it’s more accessible.

It’s still brutal, pounding, sludge with long bending drones. Opener ‘Superlab’ is probably the best of the tracks, and sounds nothing short of massive. Especially pleasing is the continued use of the Steve Austin style wail - though they’re nothing at all like Today Is The Day, fans will relish the vocal similarity.

‘It Wont Make You Happy’ sort of steals a trick from Black Sun (’You Wont Like It’), but impresses with more of that rubber band detuning for maximum gurn.

Loops and loop pedals dont excite me much. They all go the same way: build, then reduce. It gets terribly predictable. Many will remember Hornby’s work with We Are Knives (who’ve sadly imploded for whatever reason) as being above average in this regard, heavily dependent on King Crimson though it was.

His seventeen minute track on here, allegedly improvised, and performed in some bizzarre tuning like CFCGCD is however impressive for the lighter foil it provides to the Slomatics weight. It’s an unexpected but welcome relief.

Again, the Fripp comparison can’t but be helped: this time, rather than King Crimson, the sounds remind of his League Of Crafty Guitarists project. What’s nice in this instance is the slight distortion and clipping on the recording. That ever so slight uncleanliness gives the feeling of a genuinely home made creation, with a vinyl warmth whose appeal is hard to deny.

A superb little split, so pick it up where you find it.

Ciaran Tracey ::: 13/01/10