Sorry State Records

 

Damaged Bug: Cold Hot Plumbs 12"

Castle Face Records 

John Dwyer has a surprise? While everyone eagerly anticipates the next Oh Sees record, he?s been working tirelessly in his synth laboratory, hand-crafting a followup to last year?s neon-noir Damaged Bug debut?one that shakes up the snow globe considerably. If Hubba Bubba was a brush with a robotic exoskeleton on deep-space patrol, Cold Hot Plumbs visits the alien world that sent it into the cosmos. Lush, textural and psychedelic, the songs breathe with a otherworldly sadness and heart. Barbed, sophisticated arrangements flower in every direction. The vintage-perfect sound palette would be window dressing if not for the songs themselves: fresh, vital, and above all catchier than the flu. Cold Hot Plumbs is a strange, beautiful, and oddly infectious addition to Dwyer?s oeuvre, and not one to be missed.

Our take: 2nd LP from John Dwyer from Thee Oh Sees' solo project. I feel like I'd heard this described as "synth-punk" in a couple of different places, so I guess I was expecting this to be some kind of bleep-bleep-bloop-bloop Gary Numan-type stuff (which, don't get me wrong, I really like sometimes), but that isn't really what this is at all. Synth is definitely a major component here, but I wouldn't even say it's the definitive one. I'm having a bit of trouble associating this with a sub-genre or even any similar bands... it sounds like most of the rhythm tracks are built out of looped samples so that gives it a slight hip-hop vibe, but there are also a lot of psychedelic elements and of course it's all put together with Dwyer's razor-sharp pop sensibility. For some reason the overall vibe reminds me of something that would have come out of the late 80s or early 90s UK, which I suppose is the main era I associate with the fusion of loop-based music with a 60s psychedelic aesthetic. For someone like me who has a little bit of trouble getting away from guitar-based music it all sounds very fresh and exciting, and even if it doesn't have the transcendent pop highs of some of Thee Oh Sees' best tunes it's still a really original and great record.

About Sorry State:

• we ship every day! Most items ship within 24 hours
• most records we sell are on black vinyl, or at least the least limited version.
• all records are shipped well-packed in professional mail orders. Larger orders ($100+) are shipped double-boxed for added protection
• unless stated otherwise, all records are in new / unplayed condition. Note, however, that we often break the seal on records in order to take product photos. We also  sell many hand-assembled, DIY releases that do not come factory shrink-wrapped and may occasionally show fingerprints or other signs of light handling.
• items are not reserved for you until you complete payment through paypal; if you choose not to pay right away there is a small chance that a customer could buy your item in our retail store, in which case you will receive a full refund. This happens extremely rarely, though
• we are happy to combine shipping for multiple items; ebay's shipping calculator should return the best rate for most orders

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