For a few years now this Brooklyn group, featuring Mike and Maya of Double Leopards and Mouthus drummer Nate Nelson, have been exploring and examining new areas that their ‘usual’ musical outlets don’t reach. While normally that means cutting loose and going further out-there, these guys have chosen to extend themselves by going further in.
It’s not exactly yielding to tradition, but there are psych-rock songs here that are absent in the immersive soundworld of Double Leopards, and Nelson’s pummelling of his kit is put to use in producing grooves, with the help of bassist Todd Cavallo. ‘In The Back (studio)’ is full of earth-quaking fuzz and stormtrooper drums, and along with ‘The Sun’ and ‘Everything Happens Twice’ bring to mind the more progressively-minded 60’s garage rockers thanks to wailing organ. ‘Luck’ begins with a long, meandering, King Tubby-esque melodica section before flitting into a kind of modern, stoned blues when the vocals kick in. ‘Growth’ is the least structured track here, and suffers slightly for the company it keeps. It doesn’t have the same throb that the rest does.
‘Resin’ is a collection of early and transitional rarities rather than an album proper, but as the previously-unreleased ‘Twelve Bottles And One White Cone’ shows, they are on reliable form throughout. That piece – split over two tracks – is the jazziest, loosest music here but retains the intensity of the other tracks and fits in well. Religious Knives have two other album releases (three, including a limited live disc on Archive) and, loose ends or not, this is every bit as exciting. Seldom less than brilliant, and definitely worth hearing.
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