Description
First time on vinyl for the 1998 LP by Sea Scouts, an Australian band who made a particularly riveting version of noisy, tantrum-ed punk. These songs are soaked-through, weighted, and rumbling. They come off like half a war. There’s a kind of optionlessness to this music, a sense that, for the three members of Sea Scouts, it’s this or oblivion. Everyone does their part so well: the drums sound like they’re being played by a half-spider/half-elephant, the bass a psychic bludgeon, the guitar all twist and pout. Even the amps, the floor, the room surrounding them contribute, a kind of texture, a buzz and heat and stickiness. What’s that story about Unwound overdubbing an overloaded amp over the entire of ‘Fake Train’? ‘Beacon of Hope’ has a similar kind of physical saturation, a lossless transmission of agony from their bodies to the instruments to the tape to the record to the listener. I think, if you are feeling even remotely fragile, that the bruise and jostle and too-bright lights of this record is probably worth avoiding. But say you want to stand upright in a rainstorm, start an avalanche, or fight god—then I heartily recommend the claustrophobia and howl of Sea Scouts.
Released 2026 by Zum, color cover and printed innsersleeve, edition of 200 on clear vinyl
