Quite a nice "Ass"
Catfood03 | in front of my computer typing reviews | 01/07/2006
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Ever since the band's inception in the late 70's Severed Heads has always been a few steps ahead of their musical contemporaries when it comes to navigating shifts in popular electronic music. From grating noise-fests to "Industrial" to pop/dance and "IDM" (with a few top 10 hits on the Billboard dance chart along the way), the Heads knew how to survive through evolution, all the while contending with several line-up changes over their many years.
This leads to HAUL ASS, which sums up where the Heads were at in the late 90's. The focus on this record was to pull back from the vocals a bit (only a couple tracks feature head Head Tom Ellard's singing) and highlight the well-constructed instrumental hooks. In lieu of vocals curious sound bytes from various sources are interspersed amongst the burbling synths and thumping bass. The most amusing of these found snippets of dialogue is on the carnival-like "A Mouthful of Marbles" (missing in the Amazon track-list) where a circus strongman boasts of his muscular prowess, and in "Dreamsong" which features an employee-motivational tape cautioning on dealing with difficult clients.
"Choose Evil" the leading, and strongest, track on HAUL ASS makes way with a solid club-friendly beat and a whistling keyboard melody so addictively simple its sure to remain in your memory bank long after the track ends. Other highlights include the beautiful "Lufthansa" with it's layers of stringed instruments upon an slow agressive beat, and the somber "Bookburner" with it's breif rythmic loops of exotic instruments.
One footnote on this album is that it is manufactured by the Heads themselves from their own home turf, as opposed to mass-production by a proper label (I acquirred my copy as mp3's from the band's site). More importantly the two closing selections listed in the Amazon track-list, "Pie Shepperd Family" and "There's A String Inside Your Body", are likely NOT included on the current pressings of HAUL ASS, as they were available only on an early special-edition version of the record when it was originally released in 1998.
Final rating 3.5 out of 5."
Track Listings (15) - Disc #1