Premiere: Review and exclusive track from Plastic Crimewave Syndicate - Thunderbolt of Flaming Wisdom

This has got to be one of my most eagerly releases of recent times....for those who are not au fait with Plastic Crimewave Syndicate...boy, are you in for a treat! The band are made up of members of, among others, Moonrises, Strychnine, Rabble Rabble and Great Society Mind Destroyers (Ah...I miss those guys!) and for this blast of "cosmik-free-punk" they are joined by synth-lord Bil Vermette, heavy sax god Bruce Lamont and Whitney "Matchess" Johnson on viola. This combined line-up have created a monster...a monster made up of heavy-as-fuck acid rock, skronky free jazz and krautrock played with the willful abandon of punk and the malevolent mischievious of the Butthole Surfers. On first listen I was stunned..slack-jawed with admiration and blown away with the sheer intensity...and for the second time this year I was almost bereft of words to describe how much I loved an album...but for you, dear reader, I will try. 'Thunderbolt of Flaming Wisdom' is brought to us by Cardinal Fuzz..who else? (US peeps head over to Eye Vybe Records) and I'm honoured to say that I have been given the chance to unveil a track from the album...scroll down for the first chance to hear 'Ghost of Dread Reaction'.

Said track 'Ghost of Dread Reaction' opens the album and makes an impact immediately with a blast of hi-octane 'Hawkwind play punk' mayhem. It is five minutes of pure joy...the tempo never drops throughout and leaves you feeling breathless with exhilaration. Musically it is a melange of driving guitars, drums that are pummeled for all they're worth and strident vocals, all with some free-jazz sax that adds a twist of discordant playfulness to proceedings...It is some way with which to open an album. 'Future To The Ancients' has a much more open and airy vibe to it, the sturm und drang of the opener replaced with a more groove filled kraut feel. Drones and rich washes of synth provide the platform for drums that border on the motorik and guitar that echoes around like a lost soul. It is all enveloped in a cocoon of hazy kosmische that is only broken by some sepulchral moans and portentous vocals. 'Wasted All The Time' is undoubtedly gonna bring forth some Butthole Surfer comparisons, not without merit...the vocals are pure Gibby and it has that trademark Buttholes coruscating guitar....but such comparisons do the track an injustice. There is some ace psychedelic jamming present that harkens back to the seventies and has a bassline that is laden with funk and groove. 'Vast Beyond' has a New York 'No-Wave' feel about it...the James Chance 'Albert Ayler meets (a more psych) The Pop Group' vibe but with far more muscle and presence or maybe a better comparison would be Steve Mackay's manic wailing in The Stooges' 'Fun House' . A driving track with plenty of chutzpah, rooted deep in space rock but taken to planes unexplored with the free jazz stylings of Lamont, his sax complementing the throbbing bassline and yet somehow working against it at the same time...it is this dissonance that makes this a truly exhilarating journey through the minds of some bona fide imagineers. This stunning album is brought to a close by 'No Place', a long, meandering track that takes in prog, psych and krautrock over the its eleven minute length. It is a mournful piece with vocals that sound pained and somewhat thteatening. The rhythm section once more create a solid base for a guitar that almost paints pictures over the track and more flashes of Lamont's sax. It ebbs and flows over its duration, and like some of the brilliant prog/krautrock put out by the Brain label, it never rests on its laurels..always changing in tempo, atmosphere and structure....it's avant prog and demonstrates just another string to these guys' bow. Amazing...just simply amazing!

This is an awesomely good album with so much going on in within its 33 minutes; five tracks and five different approaches and styles, all unique and all having a distinctive personality but played with a knowing nod to their musical forebearers. The sheer visceral delight this album gave me cannot be written in words...exhilarating and bemusing come close but do not describe that flutter in the stomach when you hear something that will stick with you for as long as you play records. It struck so many chords it's unreal. You need this album! It is a pressing of 350 (175 for UK and 175 for USA) and Cardinal Fuzz has 75 x Colour Vinyl for UK/Euro based peeps, those in the States head to Eye Vybe Records