Sorcs 80

JOHN DWYER率いる変幻自在のUSサイケデリック・ガレージ・バンド、"O SEES"が2024年に爪痕を残す轟音まみれの最新アルバム『SORCS 80』を待望のリリース!
ギターをあまり使用せず、ローランドSPD-SXとエレクトロニック・パーカッションに比重を置いた作曲方法が大きな特徴である本作は、JOHN DWYERの荒々しいヴォーカルが穏やかなサックスやパーカッションとぶつかり合い、時にヘヴィ、時に空虚、時にSFチックと七変化がデフォルトである何でもありのヴァイブスを大量に放ち続ける、サイケデリックでジャンキーな最高にパンキッシュなアルバムへと仕上がっております。

Osees arent the kind of band to settle into a groove and repeat themselves; one is never quite sure what the next album will bring, though its for certain that it will be punk to the core. After an album where John Dwyer guided the band close to straight-ahead synth pop, SORCS 80 forsakes guitars entirely in favor of something more avant-garde and exciting. Looking for a new way to be as punk as possible, Dwyer recorded demos on cassette at home, then he and Tom Dolas transferred them to a sampler and triggered each sound using drumsticks. This way of making music feels both lo-fi and complicated, but its hard to argue when the result is a set of songs that are tightly coiled, energy-forward, and suitably angst-filled. To go along with the drum loops and triggered samples, Dwyer drafted in a pair of saxophone players to give the proceedings some Dexys-style zip. He also gathered up overheard snippets of conversations, things said by friends, and his own views on the topsy-turvy nature of modern life, and he snarls, croons, and shouts them in his usual sweat-soaked fashion. It all makes for one of the most focused and exciting Osees (or John Dwyer) records for a minute or two. Other releases have had punk fury or rampant experimentalism to hang their hat on, and the last one had some fine songs on it; SORCS ties the various strands together into something insistent, important, and intense. While Dwyer has released hundreds of songs over his career, one would have to dig deep to find a tune more in-your-face angry than "Look at the Sky," one as low-key funky and Can-like as "Also the Gorilla...," or as powerfully gothic as "Earthling." Hes firing on all cylinders writing-wise, and the music is right there, too, seemingly played by a combo of wigged-out humans and smoke-belching tin-can robots working in perfect synchronization. Punk without guitars has been done before -- everything has. Few have done it with the blend of skill, imagination, and flat-out commitment that Osees exhibit on SORCS 80. ~ Tim Sendra