Gorch Fock "Lying and Manipulating" CD
[Australian Cattle God]
This unusual outfit contains members of, not one, but six bands that I've never heard of: Gong Li, John Galt, Migas, Sister Run Naked, the Snails, and Tia Carrera.  Their style?  A very unusual blend of thick and heavy handed late-70's/early-80's punk rock, progressive rock, and a twisted sort of indie/noise rock edge or something - complete with three guitarists, a trombone, and electronics (plus vocals and the rhythm section).  How do I feel about it?  Good question.  I don't really care for it, to be honest.  I enjoy the basslines and their really defined tone, which pounds away and really plays a significant role.  And there's some great drumming with an improvisational sort of flow and lots of movement that doesn't sit still or repeat itself too often.  But other than that?  Eh.  I really just don't like horns so much and rarely find them to be tolerable, so that's one problem.  I'm also not that into the vocals, or at least the spoken stuff... some of the shouts would actually be killer if I liked the music.  There's a decent amount of droning repetition going on, and the tracks range from less than a minute to damn near seven.  I actually think I'd like this more were it instrumental - horns or not.  "Penance/Goat Mast" opens up with a doomier sort of Black Sabbath kind of thing going on with pounding drums and bass chords over distant guitar sounds - awesome.  And notice: No horns!  Of course, the latter chunk of the track has a few minutes of mostly lame harmonized vocal chants and drones, which stinks, but what can you do?  Also heavier and more aggressive is "Tampa Pentagram", which hits on some dual guitar leads and metal playing that I like - the cavalcade of frantic noisiness seems to work better in this track somehow.  Musically "Jefferson Davis Pinkus" is a nice midpaced piece with a good flow and a more consistent appeal, but the vocal performance is just awful... warbled singing/speaking that just sounds so out of place and lifeless to me.  Ugh.  The last track's a cover of Neil Young's "Ohio", albeit noisier and more distorted with lots of vocal effects, so who really knows where these guys are coming from?  There's even an unlisted piece at the end of the disc that uses more of an experimental noise undercurrent.  The recording's a little noisy, which can be an issue, but for the most part it's okay.  I like that the vocals are distant in the mix, and everything does sound really natural.  I guess my biggest problem is that the horns are too loud and really clutter up the mix, so I feel like a lot of details are getting lost.  Similarly, there's not a great deal of differentiation between the tonal ranges of the instruments, so I feel like a number of the subtler nuances are just lumping together in the center without enough breathing room.  Were the songwriting more to my liking I wouldn't be as annoyed by the way things fall together, but it would still be something to consider.  The layout is somewhat minimal, with a few strange paintings and illustrations.  No lyrics are included though, so wacky titles like "Tampa Pentagram" and "Brazilian Whack Job" remain forever a mystery...  I don't know, I can dig some of what these cats do, and I'm a fan of the rhythm section (especially the drummer), but the picture loses me with this one. (5/10)
Running time - 45:00 (approximately), Tracks: 14
[Notable tracks: Prologue: Mexia Creek Crossover, Penance/Goat Mast, Tampa Pentagram]
Australian Cattle God - http://www.australiancattlegod.com

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