2nd album from Mark Ryan's (Marked Men, High Tension Wires) Mind Spiders, and it's a Meltdown, alright. This is a very different beast from the s/t Mind Spiders LP released just 13 months ago. The most obvious difference is that while the s/t LP was recorded piecemeal, with Mark more-or-less playing all the instruments, Meltdown is the first Mind Spiders recordings to feature the full live band. And what a band it is: members of The Bad Sports, High Tension Wires, Marked Men, Uptown Bums, etc etc.
The fact that there are 2 drummers (Mike from the Marked Men AND Greg from The High Tension Wires both play drums at the same time) gives a lot of these songs a rhythmic complexity that sets the songs apart from a lot of other "garagey" type bands.
Loosely organized like the first LP, with the more straightforward, rocking stuff on side A and the weird curveball stuff on side B, Meltdown, while remarkably cohesive, blends a lot of different elements: Great sounding guitar tones. Happy, warm organ. Mean, buzzing synth. 60's pop sensibilities. Snotty garage rockers. Dark, brooding postpunk. Weirdo sci-fi soundtrack stuff. Nods to Krautrock. Oh, and did we mention there are 2 drummers?
Meltdown is definitely one of the high points in the Dirtnap catalog, and given our history with Mark Ryan, that is saying a lot. By our count, this is the 11th record we've released with him on it (1 Mind Spiders 7" and 2 LPs, 3 High Tension Wires LPs, 4 Marked Men LPs and 1 7"), I guess you could say we here at Dirtnap are a fan. |
