Lichen Gumbo

Boilin’

Aguirre Records

Caught this one via the weekly email updates from Fusetron distro. Seriously, Chris Freeman over there is doing important work, least of which is exposing me to important, obscure music, both from the past and present. Do yourself a favor and subscribe to the email list and you too can be hipped to the almighty offerings.

Description said "...heavily distorted drums and guitars, vocals varying in style going from garage, no wave to totally deranged, and synth bubbles which sound like they're recorded straight from the water surface of hot springs.”

I do not disagree with any of that. “Boilin” opener “Country Boy” partly reminds me of Madrigal, a primitive private pressed LP from Morristown, NJ 1971 and being reissued for the upcoming Record Store Day. (highly recommended, btw)

Drum machine parity with garbage guitars and cassette level obliteration the likes of an Oblivians live tape smoldering with occasional flashes of synthesizer syntax and precision timed cohesion. Thumbs-up.

I find it hard for a seemingly smaller label to even justify only making 150 copies of a new LP, but hey, this is the vinyl frontier, all old rules are slowly being thrown out and if a relative vet like myself cannot adapt I will wither and die.

Side thought: is the label name pronounced “uh-gary” or “uh-gwire”? Not sure if we should be paying homage to Bad Boy Detroit Piston Mark Aguirre (gwire) or Detroit Tigers’ batsman my dad seemed to constantly talk about Hank Aguirre (gary).

The fact that two guys in Finland can release an album on a Belgian record label that only prints 150 copies and I’m listening to it less than two weeks after it’s released just makes me incredibly happy and optimistic and impressed and eternally on the lookout for the next fix.