Xacklebox here with a fine cassette of home-made songs – this is Forrest McCuller who we suspect is also the same fellow involved in visual arts, film-making, and inventing his own instruments, and might be based in Oakland California.
Today’s tape is one of many representing the “accessible” pop-music melodic side of this odd micro-label, and it’s called I’ll Show You! I’ll Show All Of You! (KITCHEN LEG RECORDS). It’s got that 1960s wayward psychedelia vibe for sure, but also tunes into the spirit of Sebadoh and perhaps, if the singer were several degrees more emotionally battle-scarred, Daniel Johnson. My taste runs to the minimal-experimento mode he has mastered so well on ‘Rain Rabbit’ and ‘Cyclical Depression’, reinventing the Cold Wave genre on his own terms and prepared to take on all comers with his chilling synths and his “lost in the fog” vocal sound. You may prefer the upbeat mood of the title track, but even here the lyrics are obscure in meaning and a purple cloud may threaten the sunshine mood at any moment.
Major gem of th’ tape is ‘Straw Dog Symphony’, at 7:45 of “epic” length compared to the companion pop-song length 3-minute cuts, and with its dense lyrical content comes over like an allegorical morality tale being delivered by a mysterious visiting saint who’s no taller than a mushroom in the forest. Inadvertently, he’s inventing a new genre – minimal progressive rock. If Xacklebox wanted to remake any given Yes album in these terms, here’s one listener who wouldn’t complain. Xacklebox isn’t quite in the same quirkoid space as UK eccentric contenders like Slate Pipe Banjo Draggers, Meadow House, Dan Melchior or Ergo Phizmiz, but we still sense fascinating warpoid visions and inventive angles lurking behind his languid drawl. Snap this one up, ye lovers of buried treasure and tiny diamonds in the rough… (25/11/2024)