Patriotic Window Klings - S/T (Abandon Ship Records CD-R)

Cutesy cuddle bear cover art aside, Abandon Ship scores another one with this weird shamble work from some unit called Patriotic Window Klings. Know nothing about these dudes whatsoever (anyone ever heard from them?) but the sounds they produce are truly warped little rock excursions that deconstruct any connotations that term might have to the point of complete abstraction.

The disc opens with "Bertha," whose Link Wray-style guitar lines are interwoven with so many odd effects and electronic babbles that the whole thing comes off more like some k-hole product with a total go-nowhere but still hold a riff mentality. "Green Wine Blues" is no different, with side to side synth warbles beneath heavy, Sabbath bass riffs and guitar echos that culminate in something not too far off from some Hawkwind mega-jam as covered by some inept high school stoners. Which really is where Hawkwind was coming from anyway so of course it's great.

The name of the game throughout reads more or less just like this... a bunch of people trying to play some really slamming stuff but being too messed up (if you can believe that...) to actually pull it off. "Piebald" is actually way less aggressive than that, although still pretty fried with moves from angular guitar lines fucked tape samplings, etc; pretty much runs the gamut from loose to destroyed. "The Midnight Hum" eases things up with a plunky little Mario in the pipe soundtrack stuff that mixes in tribal style drumming, synth and Dead-style guitar moves and weird clavichord style piano stuff. Probably the most together thing here, but still completely zonked and totally inhabiting its own little world somewhere between Gun Club and Bowie... maybe?

The rest of the material here is essentially various takes on these moves--"Midnight Cougar" undulates with epic fervor, "Black Mary" hails the coming of a darker age and "The Unicyclist" has enough Doors-meets-wah-wah death rattling to wake Hendrix. The closing "Lakewood" is another basement jammer. Only two odd men out here are "Two Crows," whose field recorded birds and acoustic guitar find a more relaxed mode to explore their fuckery in, and "Free TV," a synth zoner that eventually becomes straight saw wave dentist dementia. Odd stuff, but actually quite worthwhile despite my less-than-insightful review treatment here... been writing all day, a bit on words. So yeah, sorry, but definitely another winner from Abandon Ship, who seems to have a real knack for releases perfect for those days where nothing's quite going right and you need to hear something far more out-of-whack than you've ever been...