“...the perfect NZ supergroup with David Mitchell of Goblin Mix and the 3Ds on guitar, Peter Jefferies on drums, and The Rip’s Alastair Galbraith and Robbie Muir on guitar and bass respectively...it’s the familiar chemistry of these friends that gives Galbraith’s voice a more optimistic timbre than his solo work.” - DAN VALLOR
XPRESSWAY PILE=UP, PART 13 by DAN VALLOR
PART 1: Intro and The DEAD C. “Even at its most structured, The Dead C. consistently has a sound so involving that it has a meditative quality.”
PART 2: THIS KIND OF PUNISHMENT “There are some fine moments on this release, but this is not the place to start with this otherwise exceptional band.”
PART 3: WRECK SMALL SPEAKERS ON EXPENSIVE STEREOS: “…bits of psychedelia similar to the Television Personalities from that era, but more prominent are elements of early-80′s Pere Ubu…WSSOES used electronics while avoiding the techno-pop cliches so prevalent in NZ and the international music scene at the time.”
PART 4: ALASTAIR GALBRAITH “…this is all pretty much a major work of art…in fact is among the most beautiful music I know…”
PART 5: XPRESSWAY PILE=UP “Perhaps it took a while for Russell to secure the rights for some of the earlier material, but it’s a blessing that he was clear enough in vision to revise Pile=Up into the important work it became.”
PART 6: I HATE PAVEL TICHY’S GUTS “A tiny review in Forced Exposure might have caused something of a stir as it was one of the first X/Way tapes to garner press in the states.”
PART 7: THE DEAD C “The Dead C. has followed countless musical paths since the release of The Sun Stabbed, but the EP represents some of the most distinctive. It is the document that vividly defines their early work.”
PART 8: THE VICTOR DIMISICH BAND “…favored something of a denser and darker sound than their southern Dunedin neighbors, expressed through a bleak vision and Velvet Underground inspired abandon…even in those early years, the brilliance of this band shone blindingly…”
PART 9: PETER GUTTERIDGE “…Gutteridge and Snapper have produced some beautifully hypnotic records…”
PART 10: ALASTAIR GALBRAITH & GRAEME JEFFERIES “This is a pinnacle of Xpressway’s brilliance, a tremendously spare and beautiful song…while they never lose control they do teeter now and then - only adding to the magic. Galbraith and Jeffries throw themselves at these moments with a glorious sense of spontaneity.”
PART 11: PETER JEFFERIES & ROBBIE MUIR: “…this is perhaps the apex of Peter Jefferies’ lengthy career…sears like some sort of acid shanty.”
PART 12: THE DEAD C. PERFORM DR503b: “…the resurrection of ‘(Beyond Help From) Max Harris’, a cacophonous strum and twang…an epic 12-minute masterpiece of varying layers and one-half of one of the greatest works never heard outside of their small community until this release.”
POPWATCH #9 Summer 1998 (page 51)
LESLIE GAFFNEY & MR. LESLIE GAFFNEY, Publishers & Editors
Previously on Fuckin’ Record Reviews:
The entirety of Dan Vallor’s Xpressway history is available in viewable form as a lovingly (i.e., much better than FRR’s) scanned PDF with one simple click…you’ll never believe what happens next!
DAN VALLOR is well regarded as a musician, archivist and all around good human by those who know. He’s the producer of those essential GAME THEORY reissues Omnivore put out the past few years, but also works under the name CLARINETTE/KLARINETTE and has a brand new long player coming out on Feeding Tube Records on 3/24/17!
Order CLARINETTE’s The Now Of Then at Feeding Tube orForced Exposure; Byron Coley summarizes Dan Vallor’swork: “In the 15 years since Thurston and I released the first Clarinette LP, Haze (Ecstatic Yod),Dan Vallor has continued to produce music unabated. Most of it has been released in very limited editions (on CDRs, cassettes and lathes), but it has been a consistently cool flow of drone accrual and invention from a guy we still sorta think of as pop-oriented. Dan’s best known work probably remains his archival activities inside the archives of the late songwriting genius, Scott Miller, although others may know him from his efforts to catalog the output of the NZ lathe underground.Clarinette is a long running solo project that began in the ’80s, then went dormant until early in the 21st Century. The music is largely based on electric guitar huzz and hum, but there are plenty of sound events that pop up throughout the record, disturbing and enriching the surface with sproings, rasps and groons. The pieces on The Now of Then are all fairly reflective, and probably more suitable to stoned drifting than freak dancing, but hey — it never pays to second guess audience reaction. If you feel the urge to freak, so be it. Clarinette’s music definitely twangs the freak register. Who are we to say you should remain seated?”(2017)
An overview of Bruce Russell’s Xpressway at Audio Culture: “’Bruce Russell’s catch cry was ‘we know what’s good for you’,” [Stephen] Kilroy says. ‘And he could talk to it in an intellectual or artistic kind of way and justify it. People knew to trust Bruce; if it’s on Xpressway it must be good’.”
