We’ve devoted a lot of words on this blog to what Fan Death Records hates about D.C.—-and less, for better or for worse, on what the Maryland label loves.
I’ll drop the editorial we and say that I can get behind D.C.’s Screen Vinyl Image, whose “Siberian Eclipse” 7-inch drops on Fan Death on June 29. I can’t tell you much about the title song, just its B-side “New Visions,” which the label mailed out today. Gone here are the Jesus and Mary Chain histrionics, but not the distant and distorted J+MC vox. Those, combined with the harsh-light ambience and laconic sequenced beats, are briefly suggestive of the satisfying, Curtis-indebted iconoclasm of Philadelphia’s Cold Cave. That all those elements are soon swallowed by a wash of hopeful noise—-though it feels wrong to call it noisy—-makes plain that the band isn’t especially interested in making record-collector rock.
DOWNLOAD: “New Visions”
[audio:http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/files/2010/04/New-Visions.mp3]