Shuttlecock

“Shot of Your Love” plus four more

Cold Cock Records

A blind buy, 47 cents at Encore Records in Ann Arbor. This one probably came into the house back in 2015 and I’m just needle dropping now.

I clearly grabbed it because of the Canton, Michigan address on the back. Nothing good has ever come out of Canton. Shit, even the Cantonese food there is terrible.

The artwork and layout on this thing makes it look absolutely terrible. There’s no telling what music is buried into the grooves and if it weren’t for the Angelfire website (/mi/flutejazz) listed in the credits, I’d be damned if I could even discern a year/era for this thing.

But some DEEP googling shows me this thing came out in 1997. Seems early for Angelfire, but maybe that’s just my mind playing tricks on me. Does Angelfire or Geocities even exist anymore? I know I made a website with one of those that was called “Licorice Whip” but probably haven’t looked for it in 15 years. It’s gone…right?

I am utterly shocked and excited that these songs are incredibly reminiscent of the earliest of Whirlwind Heat, which means they are also spiritually indebted to the likes of Brainiac and Devo.

If I had to discern the instrumentation here, there’s clearly a drummer, a vocalist, some Moog synthesizer (or two?) and the occasional flute or saxophone. I hear no stringed instruments and that feels bold for 1997.

Vocals are a bit screamy blown out and on the border of hardcore. I don’t mind.

Just generally, I think these guys (Brian, Pat, Steve and Will) HAD to be aware of Brainiac. The similarities are too close. Regardless, this feels so inspired, so outside of the mainstream, so independent, I just listen for the 5th time in a row continuing to be absolutely impressed. Skronky sublimity.

I feel like 1995-1998 is a weird black hole era for self-released 7-inches. Most of them end up without any online documentation and even of-the-era print reviews/advertisements are minimal at best. There are still a LOT of unheralded and undiscovered gems to be mined from this period and Shuttlecock serves as the perfect example of what potential exists.