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« on: November 14, 2013, 07:04:34 AM »
Just got word that these just finished pressing and should be in my hands in a week or so. Here is what the reviews are saying so far.
There's plenty of punk rock immediacy on Strange Attractor's Back to the Cruel World, but a little patience goes a long way to let this album's strange, sometimes chaotic universe unfurl. Not that this is Quadrophenia or anything?there are three songs on the B-side called the "Total Shit" Trilogy and most of these tracks offer under two minutes of punk fury. But the Sudbury, Ontario band offer something more than meets the eye: "Gimme Something Else" has a narrative about addiction, while "In Your Eyes" features an impressively restrained bridge. There's an array of percussion on "I'm Trying to Wake You Up" that adds nuance to their otherwise fast, booming, kit-centric approach. While the singer's voice has a quality that could accurately be described as "rat-like", this ain't just mindless speed punk. PITCHFORK
From only the finest of decrepit driveways and dingy, rock-filled basements of Sudbury come the latest wonder from Strange Attractor. This garage punk trip hits you in the best of strange ways, like somebody fiddled with the knobs on the way out of the time machine, freaking out as the jams swirl in a sweaty haze of indignant distortion. Throw the Stooges out into the woods for a while and this is what you?ll get. That, or it?ll just make you want to get naked and climb the rafters. Loud, capricious, and making bad decisions. Mammoth Cave said it?s too bad nobody will listen to this record. Prove them wrong.
(BL) WEIRD CANADA
Amidst the unending buzz of modernity, more and more people fall through the cracks and become alienated from the world around them. Sudbury's Jeff Houle makes music for them as Strange Attractor.
Strange Attractor is already blowing up in Europe for good reason. Houle's storm of angular guitar?featured on "I'm Total Shit" and "Real Dark Place"?and bug-eyed sing-screaming combine to make powerful garage-punk that never crosses the two-minute mark.
Strange Attractor's Back to the Cruel World is fresh air in the stolid world of Canadian rock 'n' roll. Canadians are lucky to finally be able to get Houle's music here?Strange Attractor's past two records have gone unreleased in this country, and only thanks to Mammoth Cave Records are we lucky enough to finally get a taste of Sudbury's finest. (VUE Weekly)
Strange Attractor
Back to the Cruel World
(Mammoth Cave / FDH / Resurrection)
Well, this was unexpected. Strange Attractor were formed from the ashes of one of Canada?s most beloved power pop acts?Sudbury, ON?s Statues?and, after releasing a handful of singles and the Mutant Love EP, have dropped one of the most compelling releases of 2013 in Back to the Cruel World. While the band has always toyed with genre (notably, ?60s garage, ?80s American punk, power pop, and art rock), Strange Attractor has never felt this polarized, nor this cohesive. Writ large, Cruel World makes negativity, alienation, hatred, and paranoia sound deceptively sweet?and it?s almost freeing to follow the band down the wormhole of negative emotions and mental illness. Sometimes, they feel like bad trips (?S.C.S.?), other times, they?re pathetic waltzes (?Back to the Cruel World?), and they?re almost always brimming with self-hatred (as on the trifecta of ?Hot Dog Water,? ?This is Total Shit,? and ?I?m Total Shit?). It?s not self-deprecation. It?s not self-effacing. It?s self-hatred?and it sounds incredible. (MT) AUX
I?ve a peculiar affinity for songs, and especially albums, that open with a cathartic scream.
When a singer lets loose with an up-front shriek?as Strange Attractor?s Jeff Houle does in the first five seconds of Back To The Cruel World?he?s handing listeners a reason to press STOP, should they be hunting for one, and informing those who?ll be sticking around: ?Fair warning?this ain?t gonna be pretty.? Label Mammoth Cave echoes: ?Strange Attractor have made one of the most surprising, compelling and honest LPs of 2013 that no one will hear.?
Cruel World is a basement recording in all the desirable ways?you?re in the dungeon with them, catching the reverberations of the strings and the wall-to-wall echoes. It comes with teenage angst and alienation (perhaps even literal aliens) aplenty: ?I just wanna feel? anything!? Sample song titles: ?Feel Like Total Shit,? ?This is Total Shit,? ?I?m Total Shit.?
Devilishly gruesome noise.
THE TELESCOPE
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