So, Betty has come upon the Boobs of DOOM before… ok, rewind that sentence, and stop sniggering at the back. They are a drone-rock outfit prone to lengthy and weird explorations of sound, and this new release, split with the equally out-there Stupid Cosmonaut, does not disappoint.
The Boobs track ‘Vibrations From a Dying Soul’ is a good 23 minutes of psychick meanderings, starting with a very simple acoustic riff and expanding it adding some nice crackling percussion, and exploring the variations – to infinity and beyond. Sounding at times like a Radiohead track which took that experimentalism thing too far and never came back, it is very involving music and BM can imagine it soundtracking some nightmare Cronenberg visual scenario. The electronic effects ramp up, there are no voices and it trundles through its paces, slowly building to an eerie and satisfying climax, like Blanck Mass played at half speed, and guys that is a compliment, at least meant as one.
So to the other track ‘Signals From a Dying Star’. BM knows less about the Stupid Cosmonauts but they are a four piece outfit from Bury (like that Fall song, kids!) near Manchester and have a similar approach to lengthy instrumental tracks as the Boobs. Electronic percussion, filters and drones start this 17 minute track (only 17 mins – Christ, boys, you slackers…) As it progresses, the percussion gets more jumpy, the electronics a bit twinkly. Absolutely great and again a good accompaniment to film soundtracks BM would have thought. Towards the end things get very animated and the dead planet threatens to take off into space with a blizzard of synth effects or possibly pedals, it does go into hyperdrive, then slowly grinds down the gears and fades out.