March 12th, 2008 mass of the fermenting dregs
oh dave fridmann, your work is instantly recogniseable. it might be only two tracks on mass of the fermenting dregs first full length-ish album (s/t), but how could i mistake it? everythings distorted, even drums. echo. pulling voices out of the room you recorded them in.
a familiar sound as heard on sleater-kinney’s last great record, the woods, dark heavy fuzzed out guitars becoming the guts of the songs.
On The Woods, these intoxicating dichotomies are flattened out by bulldozer-like recording, reduced dynamics, and vocals that are almost always drowned out by fuzz. Loud is the only element left; even quieter, more textured moments like “Modern Girl” and “Night Light” are hurt by the brash recording and mix, and on the rocker tunes like “What’s Mine Is Yours” and “The Fox”, the guitars are so loud they seem to be clipping 100 per cent of the time.
(honestly, i’m a terrible hack at recording, so stuff clips anyway even without the volume up as loud as i would like. but i would rather have a mix that “jumps out” than one with a perfect balance of bass and treble, whatever that is. if i want a nice mix, i’ll go listen to a pop record!)
or even a variation on the sound of the three number girl releases fridmann produced and recorded. fridmann brought out the best in the band, that being their last album before their breakup, num heavmetallic, and i always marvelled over the amount of echo he applied to the hard hitting drums.
anyhow, i’m just amazed at the congruity of my favourite records without even realising its the producer who pulls it together, to a certain extent.
i hope mass… continue to grow from this promising early release, even if they’re now down to a duo. because their music certainly promises to be more than the sum of their influences.