A1 Swooning
A2 Down To Nothing
B1 Icy Spectral Fingers
B2 Hard To Stand
Reticent to Manifest was made on a cold summer's night in Los Angeles... High on salsa verde and the thick brown air, three men went in and one long string of sound came out. (VxPxC) has been known for pulling some legs and some hair in the past, but this tape is the start of a very long apology of sorts... a way to say "Hey, we like music too... maybe just not the same stuff
as you, but you know..." Not a particularly heart-felt apology, mind you, but a start...
(VxPxC)
I understand (VxPxC), the LA-based troupe of sound murderers behind this unburnished, deep buried, gem of a cassette, have been at this since 2005. It sounds to my ears like they've used the time wisely and located a pretty unique vibrational source.
The first cut on this 40 something minute tape is one of its strongest. Wheezing accordions (or maybe organs?) and guitars are cloaked in a tape haze that sounds to me like the real sound of Los Angeles, the endless dust to which the Hotel California and the Hollywood sign will one day return.
The lanquid, yet bent and wobbly, quitar/vocal lament that opens side B (Icy Spectral Fingers) sounds like the death of a penny arcade. The moans of once cherished amusements breathing their last with a quivering sense of resignation can be heard as keyboards begin to surface in the mix. Or maybe it was just really late at night when the fellas recorded it. Or maybe I left my copy in the sun too long. Whatever it is, it totally works and runs real deep.
The next cut, which I think is called Hard to Stand, sweeps away some of the muck for a phased-out mindscratcher. It is a rather glorious confusion of totally unintelligible vocals and tenuous fidelity. Just the way I like it.
I've not heard the length and breadth of (VxPxC)?s discography so I can't comment on where this sits within their rapidly increasing back catalogue. I can say that what we have here is a great document of a band that seems to have stumbled on a pretty thrilling collision of sounds.
Foxy Digitalis
sold out visit (VxPxC) & Abandon Ship Records
try
