This came with a tiny note on a rectangle of lined paper: “Alex from Maaster Gaiden’s new band.” That’s publicity I can understand. Decoded, it means that in the middle of Texas another musical terror is spawning. Alex is a dude who channels bedroom recording ala Ryan Rousseau, Alicja Trout, and Ben Cooke into slippery anthems that tie high and low fi into seductive little knots—tied in a manner that you’re not quite sure if they’re pretty bows on presents or twisted wires set to detonate garage rock bomb blasts. (It’s both.) From a Maaster Gaiden point of view, Occult Detective Club takes more breaths between notes and has injected a nice level of creepiness and bounce to the proceedings. Being so, distant echoes of the Adverts, The Ramones, and Roky Erickson and comparisons to and shared bills with contemporaries like Something Fierce wouldn’t be too far off the mark. Tortures sounds effortless, juicy, and dire. As an aside, this is the first record I’ve ever seen that was made in Karlsruhe, the German city that was reportedly one of the heavy inspirations for WashingtonD.C.
–todd (Red Lounge Records)